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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 

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Rs 700 crore boost for Indian football

In a major development on the Indian football circuit, the All India Football Federation has inked a whopping 15 year- Rs. 700 Crore agreement with private partners IMG-RIL. The AIFF confirmed on the sidelines of their Annual General Body Meeting on Thursday. A 15-year agreement took place between both parties where IMG-RIL is handed the responsibility to carry out promotion, broadcasting and infrastructure development, which will lay additional impetus upon bestowing world class facilities for the grass root level in India.

AIFF’s previous partner was Zee Sports, who still had five of a ten years contract remaining. However IMG-RIL had given a buyout amount of Rs 70 crore for Zee to exit before the expiry of their agreement. Admiting that football had not developed in the manner expected under Zee, Praful Patel the president of the AIFF said, “We felt the need that Indian football requires a much stronger partner that can invest a lot in the development of football in India. Our cooperation with Zee has been really fruitful but somewhere it could not fulfill what we desired. With IMG-RIL coming into the picture, I am confident we will witness real development of football in India”.

While Zee was also the broadcasting partner of the AIFF, IMG will deal in arranging all these dimensions for the football body. The ongoing I-League, which has completed its second round without a title sponsor, might well turn out into a transformed edition for the next round. “For the first time, we were without a title sponsor the best football leagues in India. It was a phase, finally things look pretty sorted. You might see the I-League with a new name— basically, it depends on what IMG-RIL decides to do with the existing structure,” explained Patel.

He also clarified that while the AIFF was doing its best to promote football by providing better facilities to the players and sending them to foreign countries for advanced training, the deal would also enable AIFF to concentrate on its main role as a governing body for football in the country. “IMG-RIL is already doing a wonderful job of selecting players and sending them to train in foreign countries. We can expect that Indian players would now be able to get similar facilities in India,” said Patel.

Patel also confirmed that AIFF has succeeded in its talks with the authorities over the development and construction of new stadiums. The deal seems to be a good one for the Indian football— which hasn’t been a force on the world map— and might well be the stepping stone that the country needs.

Career Dynamics:Shaping futures(IITJEE AIEEE)

Asian Cup 2011: Player Profile - Gouramangi Moirangthem

The Manipuri is India's Mr.Dependable at the back...

By Amoy Ghoshal

03-Jan-2011 1:56:00 AM

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Gouramangi Singh

Teams

• Churchill
• India

Players

• Gouramangi Moirangthem

Date Of Birth:25.01.1985Position: Central DefenderClub: Churchill BrothersStrengths: Strong in the air, Good sense of positioningWeaknesses: Distribution from the backTrivia: The Chelsea fan has the won Indian League with three different clubs

The Manipuri is a product of the Tata Football Academy and also had a very successful youth career for India. He was the captain when India Under-18’s won the prestigious Ian Rush Trophy in 2003 by beating Brazilian club Botafago. Gouramangi also represented the India Under-23 during the 2008 Olympic qualifiers. His club career started at Dempo, with whom he won the National League and Federation Cup, but Gouramangi wasn’t a regular in that Dempo side.

He then moved to Mahindra and won the double with them as well. Even though he wasn’t a starter at the Mumbai based club also, having already won so many major trophies before even turning 22, helped in his overall development as a player. Gouramangi’s debut for the senior national team came in the 2007 Nehru Cup. Going into the tournament he was a backup to regular first choice centerbacks- Deepak Mandal & Mahesh Gawli. But an injury to Mandal in the 1-0 win over Bangladesh forced him out of the next round robin game against Syria and thus presented Gouramangi his first international cap.

Gouramangi formed a very good partnership with Gawli and his performances at the heart of the defence were instrumental in India winning the tournament. If the 2007 Nehru Cup was Gouramangi’s breakthrough tournament, the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup proved to be the competition where he would establish himself as a regular in the senior national team. He is now considered to be an important member of the Indian team and is also known to score crucial international goals including the winner in the 2008 SAFF Cup semi-final against Bhutan.

His best spell at club level has been with his current club Churchill Brothers, with whom he has won nearly every trophy in Indian football including the I-League in 2008-09 season, the campaign where he was also adjudged as the Best Defender. In 2010 he had a trial with Australia's A-League outfit Melbourne Heart, but the move didn’t materialize as the Australian club didn’t want him to stay away from regular first team football in a year leading up to the Asian Cup. Gouramangi will certainly be a very important player for India in Qatar 2011.
Source:Goal.com