Asian Games Football: India lose opener

The India Under-23 national team opened their 2010 Asian Games campaign with a 0-2 loss against Kuwait in Group D at the Huadu Stadium in Guangzhou. In the other group match Singapore caused a surprise by holding Qatar goalless. India now face defending champions Qatar on Tuesday, November 9 and in the final match Singapore on Thursday, November 11. And even with today's loss India still have chances to make it to the Round of 16.

In a match-up of the West Asian and South Asian champions, India did challenge their superior Gulf rivals in the game, but conceded an early goal as well as another in the second session to let Kuwait walk away with the three points. Striker Khaled Al Azemi scored both the goals for the Kuwaitis.

The Indian Juniors were worthy opponents, but the lack of goals was once more the downfall for India. India did have chances through captain Joaquim Abranches, Jewel Sheikh Raja and Balwant Singh but none on the scoreboard and that counts. India were nearly same on ball possession 49 to 51%, had more corners with 5-1 and 5-6 shots on target.

After the match coach Sukhvinder Singh was happy with his teams performance, but rued the missed chances which could have led to Indian goals.


India Under-23

21-Laxmikant Kattimani; 18-Denzil Franco, 4-Rowilson Rodrigues, 14-Dharmaraj Ravanan, 17-Robert Lalthalma; 11-Joachim Abranches [C], 8-Manish Maithani, 23-Jewel Sheikh Raja, 12-K. Jibon Singh; 24-Jeje Lalpekhlua (25-Malswamfela), 10-Balwant Singh
Substitutions: 1-Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, 2- Abhishek Das, 7-Milan Ongnam Singh, 9-Raju Gaikwad, 15-Lalrozama Fanai, 19-Subodh Kumar, 20-Lalrindika Ralte, 27-Jagtar Singh