The Hindu : Sport : Can India reverse the trend?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 11, 2006
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Can India reverse the trend?

Avinash Nair

BANGALORE: Japan, as the defender, will start favourite in the Asian Cup qualifying match, while India with four successive defeats in the group will be looking for a reversal of fortunes under coach Bob Houghton when the two sides clash at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Wednesday.

The away match which India lost 0-6 under coach Syed Nayeemuddin about five months back is history.

"The boys are bonding well and the short camp helped us gain much momentum. If we play as well as we did against the Saudis in the second half at Kolkata and the first 30 minutes at Jeddah, we can be happy. We need to be more consistent and extend the same level of play to 90 minutes," felt Houghton.

New strategy

The coach has worked out a new strategy with N.P. Pradeep moving in to the midfield alongside S. Venkatesh while Sanjiv Maria has been paired with Deepak Mondal in central defence.

"This will give us a lot more flexibility with both Renedy Singh and Steven Dias able to move up to bolster the twin strike force of Bhutia and Manjit Singh," Houghton said.

Houghton explained how effective the 4-4-2 format could work against a team like Japan that relies on the 3-5-2 system. But the bane of Indian football has been its lack of goal-scoring abilities.

No complacency

On the other hand, Japan, with the cushion of having qualified, will be under no pressure. " We will however not take things easy. We are here to play football and we are not going to experiment nor be complacent," assured Japan's head coach Ivica Osim.

The ground has raised a few eyebrows. The Japanese had a 30-minute workout in the morning and opted to have a full session at the Football Stadium in the evening while the Indians checked out the turf in evening practice.

The referees are from Hong Kong and the match is scheduled for a 5.40 p.m. kick-off.

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