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Nehru Cup: We Were Hard Done By The Freekick Decision – Bob Houghton
India coach Bob Houghton was satisfied with his team’s performance despite going down 0-1 to Syria and felt that the freekick from which Ali Dyab scored was a harsh decision from the referee.
29-Aug-2009 11:55:32 PM
Bob
Houghton rested several first team players including Bhaichung Bhutia
and the fringe players of the squad couldn’t really turn it on as India
went down by a solitary goal.
The Englishman said that it was difficult for the likes of Sushil Singh, Nabi, Abhishek Yadav and Mehraj, who haven’t played too much recently.
“I think the players who came in today did OK. You cannot expect them to play with high intensity because they haven’t been involved a great deal recently so it was difficult for them to complete ninety minutes.
“The format of the tournament doesn’t make life easy for the players who don’t start games. They can't even have heavy training sessions because we have to keep them fresh for the matches in case they need to come on.
“And because these players were starting after a long time, we saw Renedy and Sushil suffer from cramps.”
Houghton also gave his thoughts on the match itself and gave full credit to the Syrian team.
“Syria are a very strong team. They are not sixty places above us for nothing. We would not be able to create too many chances against them because they are very strong defensively."
However he remained confident of winning the final on Monday but admitted that defending set pieces is a weakness for his team and also complained that the referee made a bad call in giving the freekick from which Syria scored.
“I have been saying for the last three years: we are not a big side and that’s why we keep conceding from set pieces but today I think we were hard done by the freekick, which led to the goal.
“It was a clean and well timed tackled by Deepak Mandal but the referee gave away a freekick which we didn’t deal with and gave away the goal.
“It's hard to pick positives from a defeat but we can't feel too down because we have a final to look ahead to on Monday. We are very capable of beating this impressive Syria team in front of a packed crowd, so let's hope for the best."
The former China and Uzbekistan coach wasn’t happy to lose the game and that too to a controversial freekick. So when a journalist asked him to give his thoughts on Sunil’s failure to get a work permit to play for Queens Park Rangers, the Englishman got furious and once again talked about the flaws in the Indian football circuit.
“Sunil didn’t get a work permit because of India’s poor FIFA ranking. What do you want me to say about it? The reason is simple: European clubs won't go players who play for teams that are ranked in the region of 150.
“It's unfortunate for Sunil because he deserves to play there but India won't be able to improve their ranking and have a player playing abroad unless tournaments like Santosh Trophy and Durand Cup are scrapped from the domestic calendar.
Amoy Ghoshal
The Englishman said that it was difficult for the likes of Sushil Singh, Nabi, Abhishek Yadav and Mehraj, who haven’t played too much recently.
“I think the players who came in today did OK. You cannot expect them to play with high intensity because they haven’t been involved a great deal recently so it was difficult for them to complete ninety minutes.
“The format of the tournament doesn’t make life easy for the players who don’t start games. They can't even have heavy training sessions because we have to keep them fresh for the matches in case they need to come on.
“And because these players were starting after a long time, we saw Renedy and Sushil suffer from cramps.”
Houghton also gave his thoughts on the match itself and gave full credit to the Syrian team.
“Syria are a very strong team. They are not sixty places above us for nothing. We would not be able to create too many chances against them because they are very strong defensively."
However he remained confident of winning the final on Monday but admitted that defending set pieces is a weakness for his team and also complained that the referee made a bad call in giving the freekick from which Syria scored.
“I have been saying for the last three years: we are not a big side and that’s why we keep conceding from set pieces but today I think we were hard done by the freekick, which led to the goal.
“It was a clean and well timed tackled by Deepak Mandal but the referee gave away a freekick which we didn’t deal with and gave away the goal.
“It's hard to pick positives from a defeat but we can't feel too down because we have a final to look ahead to on Monday. We are very capable of beating this impressive Syria team in front of a packed crowd, so let's hope for the best."
The former China and Uzbekistan coach wasn’t happy to lose the game and that too to a controversial freekick. So when a journalist asked him to give his thoughts on Sunil’s failure to get a work permit to play for Queens Park Rangers, the Englishman got furious and once again talked about the flaws in the Indian football circuit.
“Sunil didn’t get a work permit because of India’s poor FIFA ranking. What do you want me to say about it? The reason is simple: European clubs won't go players who play for teams that are ranked in the region of 150.
“It's unfortunate for Sunil because he deserves to play there but India won't be able to improve their ranking and have a player playing abroad unless tournaments like Santosh Trophy and Durand Cup are scrapped from the domestic calendar.
Amoy Ghoshal
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