Chhetri hattrick does the trick against Vietnam

India returned to winning ways in style with a 3-1 victory against Vietnam in an international friendly at the Balewadi sports complex in Pune. Striker Sunil Chhetri was the hero of the day with a hattrick to give Bob Houghton and his boys a much needed win in the run-up to the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.

It was an open game early on with both teams trying to get possession of the midfield and the game in general. But India looked sharper, especially on counter attacks with Abhishek Yadav and Sunil Chhetri trying to combine or set-up each other up with Abhishek more of the provider. Chhetri could have opened the score early on, but on two occasions he was wide or denied by the Vietnamese goalkeeper. But he made amends in the 25th minute when he beat the keeper to open the score for India. Vietnam looked a little shocked after falling behind as India did try to build on their lead, but it remained 1-0 until the breather.

After the break the match would see even more goals. Only four minutes into the second half Chhetri would double the lead from an Anthony Pereira cross. The lead looked confortable, but Vietnam weren't beaten yet. Surkumar Singh gifted them a penalty in the 62nd minute when he brought down Dao Van Phong in the box. The resultant penalty was taken by defender Vu Nhu Thanh and he reduced the deficit. It was 2-1 and suddenly there were some doubts if India would win this game, but it was Chhetri's day as the Delhi boy confirmed India's victory with his third goal of the night in the 72nd minute, another lovely strike.

After playing their second match in Pune, India have a one win, one loss record and they will play their third and final match on October 13 against Yemen. This time the opponent will be a west Asian side and hopefully India will continue to improve.

After the game coach Bob Houghton was a happy man as not only the result was positive, but the overall performance of the team was too. Though India won yesterday and had lost on Monday, Bob once more confirmed his opinion that Vietnam are a better side then Hongkong. The only difference being that it was a much better performance by India on the night.

But not only Bob Houghton will have been a happy man. Sunil Chhetri will be pleased to be back amongst the goals after not being able to do anything worthwhile in the matches earlier. I remember after the Namibia game that he told me, he isn't happy with his game and needs to improve a lot ahead of the Asian Cup. Hopefully he has refound his scoring boots and doesn't lose them until Doha.


Match Stats

India 3-1 Vietnam

Goals: 1-0,2-0,3-1 Sunil Chhetri (25',49',72'), 2-1 Vu Nhu Thanh (62', penalty)

India: 1-Subrata Pal; 17-Surkumar Singh, 19-Gouramangi Singh, 5-Anwar, 22-Syed Rahim Nabi; 28-Anthony Pereira, 30-Climax Lawrence (66' 7-N.P.Pradeep), 6-Baldeep Singh (66' 23-Steven Dias), 25-Clifford Miranda (66' 8-Renedy Singh); 9-Abhishek Yadav, 11-Sunil Chhetri
Substitutes: 16-Arindam Bhattacharya, 3-N.S. Manju, 18-Sushil Kumar Singh, 27-Mehrajuddin Wadoo

Vietnam: 1-Duong Hong Son, 4-Le Phuoc Tu, 7-Vu Nhu Thanh (74' 3-Nguyen Huy Hoang), 12-Nguyen Minh Phuong (79' 15-Tran Duy Quang), 13-Nguyen Quang Hai (46' 11-Nguyen Trong Hoang), 16-Huynh Quang Thanh, 22-Phan Van Tai Em, 17-Nguyen Vu Phong , 23-Le Van Truong (51' 39-Dao Van Phong), 34-Le Sy Manh (46' 8-Nguyen Viet Than), 19-Pham Thanh Luong (74' 38-Nguyen Xuan Thanh)
Substitutes: 27-Nguyen Manh Dung

Referee: Dinesh Nair (India)
Assistant Referees: Francisco Fernandes (India), Shaji Kurian (India)
Fourth Official: Arumugam Rowan (India)

FC Bayern Allstars to visit Kolkata

The Allstar team of German Bundesliga giants FC Bayern Munich will visit Kolkata next month to play a friendly game against an East Bengal Allstar XI at the Saltlake Stadium on Wednesday, November 17. The match will be played for the street children of Kolkata to raise funds for an NGO named "Towards Life Foundation of India".

16 former Bayern players have been chosen from the big pool of players who represent the Bayern Allstars and the strong squad includes six former FIFA World Cup winners. Some big names of the Allstars could not be picked due to other commitments.

The Bayern Allstars contingent will fly down to Kolkata from Germany on Monday, November 15 and stay for a couple of days in the "City of Joy" and then return to Germany on Thursday, November 18.

This will be the fourth visit of an squad from FC Bayern to Kolkata. The first trip came in December 2005 when the second team took part and won the IFA Shield, then in May 2008 a weakened first team came to play Oliver Kahn's final match for the club and then in January 2009 Bayern II returned to Kolkata for a mid-season training camp.


FC Bayern Munich Allstars

Goalkeepers: Raimond Aumann, Walter Junghans

Defenders: Andreas Brehme, Oliver Kreuzer, Markus Münch, Hans Pflügler, Stefan Reuter, Michael Tarnat

Midfielders: Paul Breitner, Harald Cerny, Armin Eck, Ludwig Kögl, Matthias Zimmermann

Forwards: Carsten Lakies, Paulo Sergio, Marcel Witeczek

Coach: Wolfgang Dremmler


Official press release by Bayern Munich on fcbayern.de

India now face Vietnam

After their 0-1 defeat against Hongkong on Monday, India tomorrow face Vietnam in their next international friendly Balewadi sports complex in Pune as part of their preparations for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.

India face southeast Asian side Vietnam, who coach Houghton considers stronger then Hongkong, and they are currently ranked 125th in the FIFA world rankings. In their last international game against World Cuppers North Korea last month the Vietnamese earned a goalless draw in Hanoi, so this speaks for their potential. The side is coached by 56 year old Portuguese Henrique Manuel da Silva Calisto, who has been coaching the national team or club side Đồng Tâm Long An for nearly a decade.

India is set to make only one change to the starting eleven with Baldeep Singh getting first first start in the heart of midfield alongside stand-in captain Climax Lawrence in place of Mehrjuddin Wadoo. Due to injuries Baichung Bhutia, Mohammed Rafi, Mahesh Gawli and Samir Naik will be missing the game, but coach Houghton will welcome back N.P. Pradeep and Steven Dias on the bench to give him some more options.

The fans are with Bob Houghton and his boys, but criticism is growing about team selection and Bob's trust in certain players who have been more often injured then match fit. And for fan criticism to die down Bob and his boys need a win against Vietnam otherwise the criticism is set to grow further. And that is something which Team India can do without as they need all possible support going into the Asian Cup.


Likely India Line-up
Subrata Pal; Surkumar Singh, Gouramangi Singh, Anwar, Syed Rahim Nabi; Anthony Pereira, Climax Lawrence (C), Baldeep Singh, Clifford Miranda; Abhishek Yadav, Sunil Chhetri

Euro2012 Qualifier: Germany vs. Turkey

When Germany take on Turkey in their 2012 European Championship qualifier tomorrow evening at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin it won't be just another qualifier in the European Championships. Turks happen to be the largest immigrant community in Germany and Berlin is said to be the third largest Turkish town in the world after Istanbul and Ankara. So home advantage might not come Germany's way if Turks are able to buy more of the tickets in the open market. There are expectations that around 30,000 of the 74,000 tickets could go to Turkish fans, maybe even some more.

For coach Joachim Loew and his team the aim is to retain their 100% record in the qualifiers. So far it has been two wins from two matches against Belgium and Azerbaijan. And to move closer to qualification for the tournament in Poland and Ukraine three points against Turkey, thought to be the toughest opponent in the group, would be a big step forward.

But Loew will be missing one of his key players in Bastian Schweinsteiger. The Bayern Munich midfielder injured himself on Sunday in the match against Borussia Dortmund and surely would be missed after his great performances in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This means more responsibility on Real Madrid duo Sami Khedira and Mesut Özil. Especially for Özil it will be an emotional game as he is a third generation Turk born in Germany. In Turkey a lot of people have never understood why Özil decided to play for Germany, but those Turks living in Germany especially after the 2010 FIFA World Cup have come to like the German national football team as the team is closer to them then ever before and especially due to the fact that Özil played a key part in it.

Loew will continue to play his team in a 4-2-3-1 formation leaving the question on whom would replace Schweinsteiger open. Loew said it could be Toni Kroos, Christian Traesch or surprisingly even Thomas Mueller. Otherwise the open positions in defence looked to be set with Per Mertesacker and Holger Badstuber in the centre, captain Philipp Lahm on the right and Jerome Boateng looks more likely to play on the left rather then Heiko Westermann.

Turkey meanwhile under new coach Guus Hiddink will be dangerous for Germany, then Hiddink brings a system with him and Turkey have adopted quickly to it. But the Turks will be missing their star midfielder Arda Turan due to injury and for a number of their players it will be playing against the nation in which they where born.

2010 Asian Games: Football draws are out

The draw for the football tournament at the 2010 Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou, China was carried out earlier today. The men's competition will see 24 teams divided into six groups of four teams each with the top two sides from each group plus the four best third placed teams making it into the Round of 16. From there on it would be a knockout tournament to win the gold medal.

Though the Asian Games only open on November 12, the football tournament will be held from November 7 to 25. The competition like the Olympic football tournament will be an Under-23 tournament with three over aged players allowed per squad. The football competitions will be played across seven venues - Ying Dong Stadium, Huadu Stadium, Huangpu Stadium, Yuexiu Stadium, Guangdong People’s Stadium, Huagdong Stadium and Tianhe Stadium.

Two time champions India have been drawn in a difficult Group D along with defending champions Qatar, Kuwait and Singapore. Moving into the knockout stages is surely possible for the Sukhvinder Singh coached boys but for that a win against Singapore is a must plus good results against Kuwait and the mighty Qataris. One will have to see if Bob Houghton does release some of his senior team boys, while some India Under-20 boys will move up to be part of the squad ahead of their I-League engagements.

Four years ago in the Qatari capital Doha India had opened with a draw due to a late equaliser from Hongkong, beaten the Maldives 2-1 through a late Subhas Chakraborty goal, and then lost 0-2 against a strong Iran. That was then the end of the road for India as only the top team moved into the quarterfinals.


THE GROUPINGS

MEN

Group A: China, Malaysia, Kyrgyzstan, Japan
Group B: Iran, Vietnam, Bahrain, Turkmenistan
Group C: South Korea, Palestine, Jordan, North Korea
Group D: Qatar, Kuwait, India, Singapore
Group E: Uzbekistan, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Bangladesh
Group F: Thailand, Maldives, Oman, Pakistan


WOMEN

Group A: China, South Korea, Vietnam, Jordan
Group B: North Korea, Japan, Thailand

2nd FICCI Sports Summit 'Turf2010': My Football presentation

I have received numerous request to give you more details on my presentation about Indian football and its future at the 2nd FICCI Sports Summit 'Turf2010' in New Delhi last week. Rather then mailing some of you the details, I thought of publishing these on my blog and giving you all a chance to go through those ideas. As I have written earlier I was part of the opening session titled "Changing Face of Indian Sports", which I also moderated.

And here are more details on what I presented to the audience on how I see Indian football moving forward in the next 10 to 20 years. First I gave the audience an overview on where Indian football stands today in the year 2010. Things in Indian football surely are looking up, but we need to speed-up our progress.

Here is where football in India stands in September 2010:

The interest in football was never as big as it is these days amongst youngsters, who especially following the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga and UEFA Champions League.

Though much smaller, the interest in Indian football is also growing especially in Team India.

We now look forward to India taking part in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar in January 2011. (the first time in 27 years, the last time was 1984 in Singapore)

The Asian Football Confederation is pushing I-League clubs to professionalize under the AFC Club Licensing criteria. The clubs have a few months to comply or be thrown out of the I-League.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup has generated interest in football unseen in this part of the world.

The India Under-20 side will play as a club side in the I-League as preparation for future World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers

European clubs are eyeing the Indian market (e.g. Manchester United have opened their first Café in Mumbai, Bayern Munich plan to build an Academy in West Bengal, further EPL clubs offer training)

I gave an overview to start off so everyone has a chance to read and understand where our football stands today. Things have happened over the last decade and there is a momentum in developing our football that needs to be pushed further.
I then mentioned the points that I see as crucial in the development of Indian football. I summed it up through these points:

The professionalization of administration and club management

Building of Infrastructure – Venues & training facilities

A sound young development system (grassroots, national Centre of Excellence)

Grow the fan base of football, not only international football but Indian football too

Success of Team India at the Asian level, then push for World Cup qualification.

Indian football needs a big long term aim in football. And that could be hosting the FIFA World Cup, a possible date would be 2030 with the support and backing from FIFA & the AFC. But then in the next five to seven years we need to build facilities to prove that our ambitions are serious.

As you can read, there are short-, mid- and long-term aims. The most important steps in our development are the professionalization of administration and club management plus the building of infrastructure. Everything else is build on these factors to take our football forward, like a better organised and run I-League, a sounds national team set-up and bidding to host an AFC Asian Cup in the next decade and the big prize a FIFA World Cup bid. It might sound unrealistic at the moment, but we need to get there so even talking about it at the moment is a start to achieve bigger goals. And it is easier for us to organise a FIFA World Cup, then qualify for one through the Asian qualifiers as long as FIFA doesn't decide to expand the 32 nation tournament.

Singapore pull out of AFC Champions League

In an interesting but surprising development in Asian football the city-state of Singapore have taken a strategic decision not to play in the 2011/12 AFC Champions League. The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) have pulled out due to the enhanced criteria set for all the member Football Associations from next year onwards. And one of the criteria is that no foreign teams are allowed in the top tier of Asian nations.

Currently there are three foreign teams playing in the S-League. The latest entrant has this season been French outfit Etoile FC plus there are Beijing Guoan Talent (China) and Albirex Niigata Singapore (Japan). And due to these sides Singapore no longer qualifies for the AFC Champions League under the new rules and regulations.

FAS president Zainudin Nordin in a letter to the AFC president Mohamed bin Hamman wrote, "We concluded that due to our current lack of critical mass in key areas such as talent pool and resources, there is still a pressing need for us to continue having foreign teams participating in our league, to help address these gaps in our game and safeguard the sustainability of our league in football excellence, commercial and financial terms."

But Nordin left open when Singapore would next compete in the AFC Champions League. Nordin termed it at an "opportune time under the right circumstances in the near future" Singapore would return to the continents top tier competition.

AFC president bin Hamman reacting to Singapore's decision said, "We have taken on board the situation of the FAS. We hope they will consider seeking direct entry to the ACL soon. It is hard to see Singapore out of AFC's professional football activities in spite of their great potential. We will work hard towards seeing them playing an active role in our professional football programmes in the future."