News papers are too small to accomodate football updates
Hopeless Indian Daily News Papers, Medias and any communication modes..? Football finds no place in the news papers... so sad.. I keep on browsing for the news items on Indian winning ONGC Gandhi Cup, but not satisfied with what i found. If it is cricket.. OH! what a sad story for a football lover..
by - Tungnung
------------------------
Indian football gains much-needed self-respect
NEW DELHI, August 30: By winning the ONGC Nehru Cup before an overflowing pretty little Ambedkar Stadium Baichung Bhutia's team restored to Indian football some much-needed self-respect.
The 1-0 victory in Wednesday night's final over the higher ranked Syria could have looked more authentic if, of all people, Bhutia himself not flicked wide a sitter of a chance in the second half, one of several that were frittered away.
For a long time, football fans had waited for some such success that would lift the game out of the morass it had found itself in.
This could be it - wins over Cambodia, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan and, finally, Syria which cancelled out the earlier 2-3 defeat in the league stage at the hands of the same team.
So, is it the beginning of the renaissance?
Frankly, one will have to wait before we can answer 'Yes' to the question, however much we may be tempted to do that.
The revival of the Nehru Cup after a full decade, helped by a generous sponsorship by mammoth public sector undertaking Oil and Natural Gas Commission, was a welcome step. That the Indian team came through with flying colours has electrified Indian football, very much like the brilliant lamps that lit the lush green Ambedkar Stadium pitch.
Seeing the delirious wave of joy, there is now the lurking danger of expecting too much from Bhutia's boys in the stiffer tests ahead.
Bob Houghton, the 60-year-old Englishman who has been coaching the team for just over a year now, contemplates a place for India among Asia's top 20. With luck, he may well see this dream of his come true.
He has made the right start by guiding the team to a rejuvenating victory to which thousands at the Ambedkar Stadium were witness, not to mention the TV audiences across the nation.
But Houghton himself will not deny that the opposition India faced in the five-team tournament was not the toughest, even by Asian standards. The Iraqis, the toast of the football world after their amazing Asian Cup triumph, the Iranians, the Saudis, the Japanese, the Koreans and the Chinese, to mention just a few, are in a different league.
However, seeing the newly infused self-assurance and increasing confidence in the own abilities, it is not beyond Houghton's squad to elbow their way into Asia's elite football nations.
The 27 men he has under him are in a high state of fitness, as this writer can personally vouch after following their training sessions. The tour of Portugal before the ONGC Nehru Cup campaign appears to have done them a lot of good.
Houghton had once said he wished his players were a few inches taller, but he must be glad that they are making up in other ways what they lack in height.
Even shorties like Bhutia and Sunil Chettri were seen getting the better of taller opponents quite often on Wednesday with a spring in their heels and clever heading skills, not to mention their elusiveness, speed and eye for openings.
It would not be fair to the others to keep harping on Bhutia and Chettri, however likeable and popular they may be. The truth is good teams are built not only on the strength of a few stars. Each one has to do his best for a team to function smoothly.
One is pleased to say that teamwork was the key to success at the Ambedkar Stadium. How one wished it had adequate room to accommodate the thousands kept out by the locked gates.
From goalkeeper Subrato Paul, who brought off some spectacular saves, to Mahesh Gawli, who rallied the defence so splendidly, to NP Pradeep, who got the winning goal, and everyone else. Each one was as much a star as Bhutia and the fresh-faced Chettri.
But back to the question of a renaissance in Indian football.
For that to happen, a measure of consistency is required. Consistency is the hallmark of a good team and that is what will bring about the renaissance.
----------------------------
Bhutia, newly born at 31
SIDDHARTH SAXENA
NEW DELHI, August 28: One of the biggest challenges of writing on football in India has been trying not to write a separate piece on Bhaichung Bhutia during the course of a season or a tournament. Doing one is easy, but doing one and then hoping like mad that this one would be different from the last, is the tough part.
With Bhutia at 31, things are slightly different. The man is a reluctant member of the 30-something club, and that alone forces a revisit down your throat. Still, inadvertently, you sign up for a stern journalistic test.
Fifteen years of football later, and 13 years of international duty with India, why hasn't he gotten sick of it all yet? "It's simple," he says. "I want to score in every match, I want to win every match. Every match is new, and the hunger is still there," he explains deep stuff with criminal simplicity.
Then he adds, "See, it's not always that it works that way, but that is what you need to keep you going, I guess. That is what keeps me going." Point taken. But then, why the need to chuck it up just about a year ago? "I was not learning anything new in the old camp. How much longer can you just hope to perform without tactics and on rhetoric alone. At some level, frankly, it was proving tiring."
Bhutia's performance under coach Bob Houghton is indicative of a new-found hunger, one that was flagging previously. "The management changed, things changed. I spoke to Bob. It didn't take me very long to reconsider," he says.
In what many believe is his last international tournament for India, Bhutia has made everyone sit up with pieces of magic in the Nehru Cup. "Man, that goal against Bangladesh was even better than the one I got against Kyrgyzstan," he says excitedly. "You try that zero-angle thing in training, and it seldom happens even there.
The moment it left my foot, I knew. Goal!" Then he adds, slowly, "Yes, I might go. It all depends on how things shape out. Maybe if the Nehru Cup's still there, I don't know."
But, is his body allowing him to go on? "Hey, I know I'm 31, but it's not that I feel 31," he counters. "What does being 31 entail?" he asks. Maybe, a slower body, and loss of reflexes?
"Yes, my reflexes are slower. I take longer to warm up now than I did when I was 26 or 27. So? What I have lost in pace, I have in experience. And moreover, even with my current pace I can see I am faster than so many around me," he adds.
How is to be someone who was rookie in a team of heavyweights 13 years ago to being a senior in a team of youngsters today? Is there a sense of a lost youth somewhere.
"Maybe," he answers reflectively. "I guess that was one reason for me wanting to quit internationally. There was respect, huge amounts of it, but perhaps I didn't have friends. I couldn't joke with my buddies, hang out with them. The juniors kept a distance. Now there's Rennedy. We do similar stuff. Now, it's fun. Back then, there was a time when it was lonely."
-------------------------------------------
INDIA KEEP DATE WITH HISTORY
Pradeep Scores Winner As Hosts Beat Higher-Ranked Syria For Maiden Nehru Cup Title
Mohammad Amin-ul Islam TNN
New Delhi: In the end, it was the attitude which made the difference. You seldom come across an Indian football team playing with such vigour against a higher-ranked team in the final of an international event. If India turned the tables on their fancied opponents, and won the ONGC Nehru Cup final by a solitary goal, it was all possible because of their new-found aggro.
Bolstered by a vociferous crowd which also included hockey icon Dhanraj Pillay, and cricket star Virender Sehwag, the ‘Blues' exemplified a confidence hardly seen in the Indian team.
In earlier times, against the bigbodied Syrians, the Indians would have been a little submissive. But after a year with Bob Houghton, their English coach, Bhaichung Bhutia and his band of boys seem to have learned the way a team should play in an international final: wearing your attitude on your sleeve. In a nutshell, if Syria were bold and aggressive, India were bolder.
In fact, it was a mental game, well-fought and won by India. Diminutive Sunil Chettri's frequent spat with his well-built marker Khaled Albaba or Bhutia's I-willtake-care-of-things attitude tells a tale of a team desperately wanting to win. Houghton and his boys knew that if they won, it might herald a new beginning for Indian football.
The good thing about this team was that they never played defensive. Hence, Chettri got two clear chances in the first quarter itself which set the tone as the Syrians felt the heat. If Chettri, Delhi's own, missed those early sitters, he made amends by helping India take lead minutes before the break. Chettri's quick cross from the left was met with an unsuccessful back-volley attempt by Bhutia. However, the rebound was picked up by NP Pradeep who slammed it home in a flash to sent the capacity crowd into ecstasy.
The goal rattled the Syrians so much that they resorted to reckless fouls. And the West Asians paid for that in the final moments of the first half when Wael Ayan was given the marching orders after he deliberately kicked Surkumar Singh in the groin. With Syria reduced to 10 men, India became even more dominant.
With Syria's key man in the middle, Maher Al Sayed being bottled by Surkumar and Steven Dias, the winners had already scored some brownie points in the midfield. Though Sayed tried hard to evade his markers, the Syrian skipper's good work came to a nought, thanks to goalkeeper Subroto Paul who revelled under the bar with some fantastic saves. Even the Indian back four, well-led by Mahesh Gawli, lived up to expectations. Impressive tackles, both on the ground and in the air, and latching on to their opponents ensured the defence was in the thick of action, particularly in the second session.
After the match, it was gratifying to see Bhutia and Co. running a lap of honour with the tricolour in hand as the fans gave them a standing ovation. The memory will linger. One hopes, the good work continues.
Hopeless Indian Daily News Papers, Medias and any communication modes..? Football finds no place in the news papers... so sad.. I keep on browsing for the news items on Indian winning ONGC Gandhi Cup, but not satisfied with what i found. If it is cricket.. OH! what a sad story for a football lover..
by - Tungnung
------------------------
Indian football gains much-needed self-respect
NEW DELHI, August 29: There were days when AIFF officials would call up journalists in general and sports journalists in particular and ensure whether they were coming that evening to watch the football match.
But on Wednesday it is a different ball game. The phones have not stopped ringing at the AIFF office. The officials’ mobiles have been flooded with requests for an entry to Wednesday’s final. But one thing is for sure, that even VIPs will have to stand and watch the final of the ONGC Nehru Cup that is being played between India and Syria at the Ambedkar stadium.
Times have changed as Indian football is all set to enter the big stage. India had a good run at the ONGC cup improving its performance match by match. Bhutia and his boys displayed class and style beating Kyrgyzstan in the semi-final. With Bob Houghton at the helm and Bhaichung’s boys raring to go, there will be a mad rush at the Ambedkar Stadium on Wednesday when India take on Syria in the final of the ONGC Nehru Cup.
"This is a very good thing for Indian football", says Dr. Shaaji Prabhakaran an AIFF official and in-charge of the all India grassroots programme.
"I wish the stadium was bigger", says Shaaji. He adds, "Ambedkar stadium can only accommodate 15000 seats and out of which 4000 have been given out as complimentary passes. But the hundreds and thousands of requests is only proof that Indian football is getting popular. This is a great morale booster for the team and the game in India."
It is going to be tough even for those who would reach the stadium hours earlier to buy tickets.
India will go into the final with full of confidence. Syria knows that they have already beaten India in a previous match. But Houghton will have a different strategy on Wednesday. And the home crowd will be there to root for India.
But what is certain is that the organisers will have a tough time to keep the football fans at bay.
----------------------------------------------
But on Wednesday it is a different ball game. The phones have not stopped ringing at the AIFF office. The officials’ mobiles have been flooded with requests for an entry to Wednesday’s final. But one thing is for sure, that even VIPs will have to stand and watch the final of the ONGC Nehru Cup that is being played between India and Syria at the Ambedkar stadium.
Times have changed as Indian football is all set to enter the big stage. India had a good run at the ONGC cup improving its performance match by match. Bhutia and his boys displayed class and style beating Kyrgyzstan in the semi-final. With Bob Houghton at the helm and Bhaichung’s boys raring to go, there will be a mad rush at the Ambedkar Stadium on Wednesday when India take on Syria in the final of the ONGC Nehru Cup.
"This is a very good thing for Indian football", says Dr. Shaaji Prabhakaran an AIFF official and in-charge of the all India grassroots programme.
"I wish the stadium was bigger", says Shaaji. He adds, "Ambedkar stadium can only accommodate 15000 seats and out of which 4000 have been given out as complimentary passes. But the hundreds and thousands of requests is only proof that Indian football is getting popular. This is a great morale booster for the team and the game in India."
It is going to be tough even for those who would reach the stadium hours earlier to buy tickets.
India will go into the final with full of confidence. Syria knows that they have already beaten India in a previous match. But Houghton will have a different strategy on Wednesday. And the home crowd will be there to root for India.
But what is certain is that the organisers will have a tough time to keep the football fans at bay.
----------------------------------------------
Changing times for Indian football
NEW DELHI, August 30: By winning the ONGC Nehru Cup before an overflowing pretty little Ambedkar Stadium Baichung Bhutia's team restored to Indian football some much-needed self-respect.
The 1-0 victory in Wednesday night's final over the higher ranked Syria could have looked more authentic if, of all people, Bhutia himself not flicked wide a sitter of a chance in the second half, one of several that were frittered away.
For a long time, football fans had waited for some such success that would lift the game out of the morass it had found itself in.
This could be it - wins over Cambodia, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan and, finally, Syria which cancelled out the earlier 2-3 defeat in the league stage at the hands of the same team.
So, is it the beginning of the renaissance?
Frankly, one will have to wait before we can answer 'Yes' to the question, however much we may be tempted to do that.
The revival of the Nehru Cup after a full decade, helped by a generous sponsorship by mammoth public sector undertaking Oil and Natural Gas Commission, was a welcome step. That the Indian team came through with flying colours has electrified Indian football, very much like the brilliant lamps that lit the lush green Ambedkar Stadium pitch.
Seeing the delirious wave of joy, there is now the lurking danger of expecting too much from Bhutia's boys in the stiffer tests ahead.
Bob Houghton, the 60-year-old Englishman who has been coaching the team for just over a year now, contemplates a place for India among Asia's top 20. With luck, he may well see this dream of his come true.
He has made the right start by guiding the team to a rejuvenating victory to which thousands at the Ambedkar Stadium were witness, not to mention the TV audiences across the nation.
But Houghton himself will not deny that the opposition India faced in the five-team tournament was not the toughest, even by Asian standards. The Iraqis, the toast of the football world after their amazing Asian Cup triumph, the Iranians, the Saudis, the Japanese, the Koreans and the Chinese, to mention just a few, are in a different league.
However, seeing the newly infused self-assurance and increasing confidence in the own abilities, it is not beyond Houghton's squad to elbow their way into Asia's elite football nations.
The 27 men he has under him are in a high state of fitness, as this writer can personally vouch after following their training sessions. The tour of Portugal before the ONGC Nehru Cup campaign appears to have done them a lot of good.
Houghton had once said he wished his players were a few inches taller, but he must be glad that they are making up in other ways what they lack in height.
Even shorties like Bhutia and Sunil Chettri were seen getting the better of taller opponents quite often on Wednesday with a spring in their heels and clever heading skills, not to mention their elusiveness, speed and eye for openings.
It would not be fair to the others to keep harping on Bhutia and Chettri, however likeable and popular they may be. The truth is good teams are built not only on the strength of a few stars. Each one has to do his best for a team to function smoothly.
One is pleased to say that teamwork was the key to success at the Ambedkar Stadium. How one wished it had adequate room to accommodate the thousands kept out by the locked gates.
From goalkeeper Subrato Paul, who brought off some spectacular saves, to Mahesh Gawli, who rallied the defence so splendidly, to NP Pradeep, who got the winning goal, and everyone else. Each one was as much a star as Bhutia and the fresh-faced Chettri.
But back to the question of a renaissance in Indian football.
For that to happen, a measure of consistency is required. Consistency is the hallmark of a good team and that is what will bring about the renaissance.
----------------------------
Bhutia, newly born at 31
SIDDHARTH SAXENA
NEW DELHI, August 28: One of the biggest challenges of writing on football in India has been trying not to write a separate piece on Bhaichung Bhutia during the course of a season or a tournament. Doing one is easy, but doing one and then hoping like mad that this one would be different from the last, is the tough part.
With Bhutia at 31, things are slightly different. The man is a reluctant member of the 30-something club, and that alone forces a revisit down your throat. Still, inadvertently, you sign up for a stern journalistic test.
Fifteen years of football later, and 13 years of international duty with India, why hasn't he gotten sick of it all yet? "It's simple," he says. "I want to score in every match, I want to win every match. Every match is new, and the hunger is still there," he explains deep stuff with criminal simplicity.
Then he adds, "See, it's not always that it works that way, but that is what you need to keep you going, I guess. That is what keeps me going." Point taken. But then, why the need to chuck it up just about a year ago? "I was not learning anything new in the old camp. How much longer can you just hope to perform without tactics and on rhetoric alone. At some level, frankly, it was proving tiring."
Bhutia's performance under coach Bob Houghton is indicative of a new-found hunger, one that was flagging previously. "The management changed, things changed. I spoke to Bob. It didn't take me very long to reconsider," he says.
In what many believe is his last international tournament for India, Bhutia has made everyone sit up with pieces of magic in the Nehru Cup. "Man, that goal against Bangladesh was even better than the one I got against Kyrgyzstan," he says excitedly. "You try that zero-angle thing in training, and it seldom happens even there.
The moment it left my foot, I knew. Goal!" Then he adds, slowly, "Yes, I might go. It all depends on how things shape out. Maybe if the Nehru Cup's still there, I don't know."
But, is his body allowing him to go on? "Hey, I know I'm 31, but it's not that I feel 31," he counters. "What does being 31 entail?" he asks. Maybe, a slower body, and loss of reflexes?
"Yes, my reflexes are slower. I take longer to warm up now than I did when I was 26 or 27. So? What I have lost in pace, I have in experience. And moreover, even with my current pace I can see I am faster than so many around me," he adds.
How is to be someone who was rookie in a team of heavyweights 13 years ago to being a senior in a team of youngsters today? Is there a sense of a lost youth somewhere.
"Maybe," he answers reflectively. "I guess that was one reason for me wanting to quit internationally. There was respect, huge amounts of it, but perhaps I didn't have friends. I couldn't joke with my buddies, hang out with them. The juniors kept a distance. Now there's Rennedy. We do similar stuff. Now, it's fun. Back then, there was a time when it was lonely."
-------------------------------------------
INDIA KEEP DATE WITH HISTORY
Pradeep Scores Winner As Hosts Beat Higher-Ranked Syria For Maiden Nehru Cup Title
Mohammad Amin-ul Islam TNN
New Delhi: In the end, it was the attitude which made the difference. You seldom come across an Indian football team playing with such vigour against a higher-ranked team in the final of an international event. If India turned the tables on their fancied opponents, and won the ONGC Nehru Cup final by a solitary goal, it was all possible because of their new-found aggro.
Bolstered by a vociferous crowd which also included hockey icon Dhanraj Pillay, and cricket star Virender Sehwag, the ‘Blues' exemplified a confidence hardly seen in the Indian team.
In earlier times, against the bigbodied Syrians, the Indians would have been a little submissive. But after a year with Bob Houghton, their English coach, Bhaichung Bhutia and his band of boys seem to have learned the way a team should play in an international final: wearing your attitude on your sleeve. In a nutshell, if Syria were bold and aggressive, India were bolder.
In fact, it was a mental game, well-fought and won by India. Diminutive Sunil Chettri's frequent spat with his well-built marker Khaled Albaba or Bhutia's I-willtake-care-of-things attitude tells a tale of a team desperately wanting to win. Houghton and his boys knew that if they won, it might herald a new beginning for Indian football.
The good thing about this team was that they never played defensive. Hence, Chettri got two clear chances in the first quarter itself which set the tone as the Syrians felt the heat. If Chettri, Delhi's own, missed those early sitters, he made amends by helping India take lead minutes before the break. Chettri's quick cross from the left was met with an unsuccessful back-volley attempt by Bhutia. However, the rebound was picked up by NP Pradeep who slammed it home in a flash to sent the capacity crowd into ecstasy.
The goal rattled the Syrians so much that they resorted to reckless fouls. And the West Asians paid for that in the final moments of the first half when Wael Ayan was given the marching orders after he deliberately kicked Surkumar Singh in the groin. With Syria reduced to 10 men, India became even more dominant.
With Syria's key man in the middle, Maher Al Sayed being bottled by Surkumar and Steven Dias, the winners had already scored some brownie points in the midfield. Though Sayed tried hard to evade his markers, the Syrian skipper's good work came to a nought, thanks to goalkeeper Subroto Paul who revelled under the bar with some fantastic saves. Even the Indian back four, well-led by Mahesh Gawli, lived up to expectations. Impressive tackles, both on the ground and in the air, and latching on to their opponents ensured the defence was in the thick of action, particularly in the second session.
After the match, it was gratifying to see Bhutia and Co. running a lap of honour with the tricolour in hand as the fans gave them a standing ovation. The memory will linger. One hopes, the good work continues.
