Football: Indian National Team news ...

[jayakris]

^^^ Yes, that is what I meant by 100% out. All parts of the ball have to be outside the vertical plane at the back edge of the line (which means the ball might be touching the ground some a few inches outside. It was 100% out and they called it in.

[Atithee]

From the clip I posted, I can’t tell if it was 100% out. Maybe other angles show it better. Is there no VAR option? Especially as it was a goal.

[jayakris]

AIFF has asked FIFA to investigate and consider giving us some "sporting compensation". Not sure what compensation can be there though...

AIFF seeks investigation into Qatar’s controversial goal vs India, explores sporting compensation possibilities (Sportstar)

[Atithee]

^^ From the link that Jay posted,

The goal sparked widespread outrage as it deprived the Indians of what would have been their maiden entry into the third round of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers for the 2026 edition.

I’ve read this at several other places too. Jay—I thought you said our win wouldn’t have mattered as Kuwait won anyway. Is that incorrect?

Also, this article answered my question about why VAR wasn’t used.

Sporting compensation could only mean $ in the name of development funds or some participation/qualification bonus.

[jayakris]

The goal sparked widespread outrage as it deprived the Indians of what would have been their maiden entry into the third round of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers for the 2026 edition.

I’ve read this at several other places too. Jay—I thought you said our win wouldn’t have mattered as Kuwait won anyway. Is that incorrect?

Yes. Kuwait won their match, and got 3 points to go to 7 total. India was at 5 pts and would have only gone to 6 pts with a tie. Had Kuwait had a tie in their match with AFG, the referee screwup would have really mattered.

I think what people are saying is that we totally got deflated when the match got tied in the 73rd minute, and that this affected our play which in turn led to our conceding the winning goal 12 minutes later. Maybe true, but I don't think we should say that. Crap happens, and we should have continued to play well, putting it behind. The next goal was a well-done goal from Qatar. So I won't complain. We have only ourselves to blame, for not scoring even one goal against Afghanistan at home. Kuwait did, so they are better than us for the 2nd place. In fact, I think we went some 600 minutes without a non-penalty goal. That caused us not advancing. Not this.

[Atithee]

Thanks, Jay. But, if we won, would we have advanced with eight (assuming three for win) points? Or Kuwait would still be ahead of us?

[arjun2761]

Struggling to understand how would a team with 7 points be considered ahead of a team with 8 points.

[jayakris]

Thanks, Jay. But, if we won, would we have advanced with eight (assuming three for win) points? Or Kuwait would still be ahead of us?

Yes we would have, with a win. But if that goal is taken away, we would still not win, it would be a 1-1 tie, and we would not have advanced. So in the end it didn't matter. The goal we allowed at the 85th minute was the reason why we are not advancing. Not the "daylight robbery" goal.

It seems the coach tried his best yelling from the sidelines trying to get the team to put that goal behind and play, but we collectively lost out minds for the last 20+ minutes.

[Atithee]

Struggling to understand how would a team with 7 points be considered ahead of a team with 8 points.

Win gets three points.

[Atithee]

Yes we would have, with a win. But if that goal is taken away, we would still not win, it would be a 1-1 tie, and we would not have advanced. So in the end it didn't matter. The goal we allowed at the 85th minute was the reason why we are not advancing. Not the "daylight robbery" goal.

That goal certainly had an impact. We can’t say definitely either way. At least there would have been a higher chance is indisputable.

[arjun2761]

Struggling to understand how would a team with 7 points be considered ahead of a team with 8 points.

Win gets three points.

Yes and no more. India had 5 points going in and Kuwait had 4 points. If we won we would have 8 points which is more than Kuwait’s 7 points. Pretty simple really.

[Atithee]

^^ I interpreted your question the other way, Arjun.

[prasen9]

That goal certainly had an impact. We can’t say definitely either way. At least there would have been a higher chance is indisputable.

That is correct. It could be that we would have defended more and not given up the second goal. Maybe here we knew we had to go for the win after it was 1-1 and thus attacked a bit more and kept ourselves vulnerable for the second goal. Who knows! And, as Jay says, we lost our minds, etc. after that goal.

[jayakris]

For the record, Igor Stimac has been sacked. Well-expected. Unfortuanate too, as he was a pretty good coach. He just could not get lucky with a goal or two in key matches.

[arjun2761]

Too bad. I don't think we have good offensive talent so it will be hard for us to do much better than what Stimac has achieved. Maybe we can hope to improve from 110-120 level to 80-100 level in the near term but to get better than that we will need to find and develop better players than those we are currently developing.