India 0-0 Nepal - Toothless Tigers held by solid Gorkhalis
The Blue Tigers seemed short of ideas as the Gorkhalis defended resolutely and maintained a good shape...
India played out a goal-less draw against Nepal at Balewadi Sports Complex, Pune in an international friendly on Monday evening. Stephen Constantine started with Dhanpal Ganesh at the back alongside Sandesh Jhingan, Pritam Kotal and Narayan Das. Eugeneson Lyngdoh and Pronay Halder started in the middle of the park for the home side.
Anjan Bista and Bimal Magar, who had just led their U-19 side to glory in the SAFF Championship, started up front for the Gorkhalis.
The home side had their first real chance in the 16th minute, but Jeje Lalpekhlua made a hash of it as he shot from about 25 yards out when he had all the time in the world to take a shot closer to goal. The shot took a harmless deflection off Khawas which allowed the opposition to clear their lines.
There was chaos in the box about five minutes later following a corner. Left unmarked outside the box, Jhingan volleyed towards goal after a fluffed clearance but the post came in the way after a couple od deflections.
Kiran Kumar Limbu came to Nepal's rescue at the half hour mark as he made three back-to-back saves. He leapt to his left to parry Robin Singh's piledriver and followed it up by saving Jeje's effort on the rebound before finally sending out Francis Fernandes' shot for a corner.
With Nepal looking to maintain a tight shape and hitting on the counter, India struggled to find any space.
Towards the end of the first half, Chhetri had the entire goal at his mercy from about eight yards out but failed to bury the chance. This was after sending the keeper the wrong way, as he pulled his effort wide.
The Gorkhalis had their first real chance of the match in the 69th minute as substitute Sushil KC almost made a mark within minutes of being introduced in the tie. A resolute run saw him driving through the midfield and defense but eventuaklly dragged his shot wide.
Limbu was at it again as he managed to keep out Cavin Lobo's powerful effort from just outside the box in the 78th minute. Merely three minutes later, Chhetri let it rip from about 30 yards out but his venomous shot went wide, with Limbu scrambling.
With mere seconds left on the clock, CK Vineeth had a chance to make an impact as he was clean through on goal down the left but Nawayung Shrestha came back in time and cleared the ball.
Nepal will be the happier of the two sides as they held India to a stalemate. However, Constantine will have a lot to ponder upon as his new system with new personnel failed to click, especially with the Iran encounter merely a week away.
Chennaiyin FC retain John Stiven Mendoza
The Colombian forward has been loaned to Chennaiyin FC from Corinthians for the upcoming Indian Super League (ISL) season...
Chennaiyin FC have managed to further strenghten their squad as they look to take the Indian Super League (ISL) season two by storm, by retaining John Mendoza who has joined on loan from Corinthians.
The Colombian frontman had made a splash in the inaugural season as Chennaiyin FC finished top of the table, but failed to go past Kerala Blasters in the semi-final.
He scored four goals in nine appearances for the Blues in the group stages, with injury plaguing his appearances in the latter half of the season. He was indeed a big absentee and was deemed as one of the reasons why Chennaiyin faltered in the knockout stages.
He was a key player for the Brazilian giants, and played a starring role as Corinthians made it to the semi-finals of their local Sao Paulo championships while also making 10 appearances in the Brazilian Serie A with one goal in his kitty.
Chennaiyin FC will thus consider it a major coup as they convinced Corinthians to allow Mendoza to play in the ISL.
Marco Materazzi was effusive in his praise of the Colombian while also remarking that he can only improve.
“I am very happy to have Mendoza back with us for this year’s ISL. We had been working very hard for our foreign signings and always knew that it would be difficult to find a player of Mendoza’s calibre. So the best solution was to retain Mendoza and I am thankful to Corinthians for the agreement. Mendoza was one of our best players last year but he is still only 23 and thus there is plenty of room for improvement and I have full faith in him to make a big difference for us this time also,” said Chennaiyin FC manager Marco Materazzi from Perugia, Italy.
The player on his part wanted to make up for the missed time due to injury last season, and targetted the championship.
The Colombian frontman had made a splash in the inaugural season as Chennaiyin FC finished top of the table, but failed to go past Kerala Blasters in the semi-final.
He scored four goals in nine appearances for the Blues in the group stages, with injury plaguing his appearances in the latter half of the season. He was indeed a big absentee and was deemed as one of the reasons why Chennaiyin faltered in the knockout stages.
He was a key player for the Brazilian giants, and played a starring role as Corinthians made it to the semi-finals of their local Sao Paulo championships while also making 10 appearances in the Brazilian Serie A with one goal in his kitty.
Chennaiyin FC will thus consider it a major coup as they convinced Corinthians to allow Mendoza to play in the ISL.
Marco Materazzi was effusive in his praise of the Colombian while also remarking that he can only improve.
“I am very happy to have Mendoza back with us for this year’s ISL. We had been working very hard for our foreign signings and always knew that it would be difficult to find a player of Mendoza’s calibre. So the best solution was to retain Mendoza and I am thankful to Corinthians for the agreement. Mendoza was one of our best players last year but he is still only 23 and thus there is plenty of room for improvement and I have full faith in him to make a big difference for us this time also,” said Chennaiyin FC manager Marco Materazzi from Perugia, Italy.
The player on his part wanted to make up for the missed time due to injury last season, and targetted the championship.
“I am very excited to join Chennaiyin FC on loan for the second season of the ISL. It is an honour playing for Corinthians in Brazil and I have been enjoying my experience there. But I had some fantastic moments in the ISL last year so I would like to thank Chennaiyin FC and Marco for giving me the opportunity to come back. I am grateful to Corinthians for agreeing to this move and I know that this time there will be more expectations from me. It was wonderful to be at Chennaiyin FC last year both on and off the pitch so I can’t wait to get started again and especially play in front of our home fans at the Marina Arena. Last year I couldn’t play the full tournament due to injury but this time I want to remain fit throughout and help Chennaiyin become the champions,” he signed off.
India: 1.2 billion people, 0 top footballers
The 23-year explosion of the Premier League to all four corners of the world has brought out a passionate interest in football from many nations we in the myopic west of Europe often consider either uninterested in the world game, or more concerned with weird, backward sports like kabbaddi, or cricket. India is one of those countries.
Football in India is big business. Premier League pre-season tours bring in large crowds. There is a huge market for replica shirts, both official and not-so-official. There is even a football version of the IPL, the Indian Super League. The reigning champions are Atletico de Kolkata, and the star players include Premier League blasts from the past such as Elano and Josemi. Peter Taylor, Roberto Carlos and Nicolas Anelka are among the managers of the eight franchises.
All this makes it extraordinary that India, a sub-continent with a population of 1.2billion, a rising power with a history of sporting prowess and a love of football, has not produced one single star of note, nor has a football team that has made a meaningful impact on a regional, let alone national stage.
Currently, they’re bottom of their World Cup qualifying group in the third of four rounds for Asia. In their last game in June, they lost 2-1 to Guam. Guam is a tiny Indian Ocean island with a population of a midge over 150,000. I don’t know what microscopic percentage of the Indian populace that is, but the fact India have been beaten by a semi-independent nation in the middle of the ocean named after themselves, shows they are not a footballing power.
They do have the world’s qualifying top scorer so far though. Sunil Chhetri has four in the onion bag thus far.
There is also some evidence of an Indian renaissance in English club football too. A Masters student at Loughborough University has become only the second Indian woman to earn a professional contract at an English football club after signing for West Ham United.
MSc Sports Management student Aditi Chauhan added to India’s sporting history by signing for the East London club. Her achievements are further magnified by the fact that India currently has no professional league or training for female footballers.
The signing was greeted with plenty of positive reactions from Indian fans, with plenty expressing their excitement on social media. The reaction also caused the club to put the goalkeeper’s shirt on their online club store.
She endured a tough start to life in professional football however, as they lost 5-0 to Coventry United in their first game of the season. Still, small steps and all that.
The excitement of a third tier English women’s football team signing a young goalkeeper indicates that Indian football is ready for success. More success than Michael Chopra could ever offer. They just need a small selection of their billion plus potential stars to develop. It surely won’t take long.
One more quality fact before I go. India have qualified for a World Cup once, in 1950, when England made their debut. They withdrew, however. For years the rumour was that they were sulking at not being allowed to play in bare feet. They actually couldn’t meet travel costs.
by Matt Smith
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