Minnows India face South Korea and Australia in Asian Cup
NEW DELHI: It may not sound as a good promotional ad campaign for Indian football but the fact is that it took India 27 years to qualify for their third Asian Cup and few are expecting any fireworks in Doha.
It will be their first outing since 1984 when they failed to make any impact, in stark contrast to their maiden appearance in 1964 in Tel Aviv when they finished runners-up. Currently ranked 144th in the world, recent successes have been limited to the south Asian region with victories in Nehru Cup in 2007 and 2009 before their AFC Challenge Cup heroics gave them a ticket to Doha.
But ahead of their Asian Cup campaign, India's dismal run in friendlies in November last year brought us close to the big question: Is this the best Indian team at the Asian Cup? India have played eight international matches away from home in 2010 under their coach Bob Houghton and lost all eight. Besides, they conceded 32 goals and scored only five. Still, the English coach insisted this is the best Indian football team.
The two major tournaments which India won - Nehru Cup and AFC Challenge Cup - have come on home soil. And Houghton bragged about the resurgence of Indian football which lay in a heap of disappointments when he took over in 2006.
Whatever little progress India made under Houghton was reduced to a rubble after the team got thrashed by superior Gulf teams in the friendlies. No wonder then, the Englishman hinted at resigning if India fares poorly in Asian Cup. He knows India don't stand a chance against two World Cup teams - South Korea and Australia - in Group C while Bahrain is also a tough nut to crack. In fact, Houghton will be more concerned with preventing embarrassing scorelines.
Houghton got whatever he wanted from All India Football Federation (AIFF). Foreign tours, handsome pay packages both for him and players and best of facilities provided by the federation. But in the end, results weren't that encouraging. All of a sudden, Nehru Cup victories seemed nothing more than an eyewash.
Injury to key players, including skipper Baichung Bhutia, and conflicts with the coaching staff just days before the event have also marred India's campaign. Houghton's rigidity in holding on to the same group of players from 2006 has also raised eyebrows as his team goes into the tournament clearly underprepared and low on confidence.
Houghton would have done a world of good to country's football had he included a couple of youngsters from the Asian Games squad. The idea was to encourage and promote and build a team for future just like what Japan and Korea had done with their youth teams.
INDIA IN ASIAN CUP
1964: Qualified without playing a single match after all the teams of from west zone qualifying round withdrew. However, India did exceptionally well in the final round where they finish runners-up to Israel.
1964: Beat South Korea 2-0, beat Hong Kong 3-0, lost to Israel 2-0
1984: Lost to Singapore 2-0, lost to UAE 2-0, drew with Iran 0-0, lost to China 3-0
INDIA'S MATCHES IN DOHA, 2011
Jan 10: against Australia,
Jan 14: against Bahrain,
Jan 18: against Korea
SQUAD:
Goalkeepers: Subrata Pal, Subhasish Roy Choudhury, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.
Defenders: Surkumar Singh, Gouramangi Singh, Anwar, Mahesh Gawli, Syed Rahim Nabi, Deepak Mondal, NS Manju, Rakesh Masih, Govin Singh.
Midfielders: Steven Dias, NP Pradeep, Climax Lawrence, Clifford Miranda, Renedy Singh, Mehrajuddin Wadoo, Baldeep Singh.
Strikers: Baichung Bhutia (captain), Sunil Chhetri, Abhishek
