Asian Games Football: Do or Die match for India

The India Under-23 team play their final Group D match tomorrow against Singapore in the 2010 Asian Games football tournament in Guangzhou, China. And after two losses against Kuwait and Qatar India only have a chance to progress to the Round of 16 if they are able to beat Singapore, otherwise their tournament would come to an end but even a win might not be enough to stay in the tournament.

Singapore meanwhile have a single point on the board after an opening day draw against Qatar, but against Kuwait they also suffered a loss like India. So we can expect an interesting match between the two sides, who both still have hopes of survival.

Coach Sukhvinder Singh will have to decide who to put in goal as Laxmikant Kattimani is out injured. Young Gurpreet Singh Sandhu looked shaky at times after coming on against Qatar, so Sukhi might use tried and tested Karanjit Singh, who has played under him at JCT for many years. Elsewhere Sukhvinder will have to replace Robert Lalthalma due to a double booking with Lalrozama Fanai set to replace him, and captain Joaquim Abranches might have to sit out with an ankle injury.

Sukhvinder said about the match, "It is a difficult situation. If we win, we have a chance but we are not looking at that now. We are only aiming to play well, that is our focus." To some such a statement might sound weird but that is Sukhvinder Singh, who added, "It'll be a tough game tomorrow but we will try to give our best."


Likely India Under-23 Line-up

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu; Denzil Franco, Rowilson Rodrigues, Dharmaraj Ravanan, Lalrozama Fanai; Joachim Abranches, Manish Maithani, Jewel Sheikh Raja, Jibon Singh; Jeje Lalpekhlua, Balwant Singh