New Delhi: India would be desperate to avoid their sixth consecutive defeat in the World Cup qualifiers, when they take on Guam in Bangalore's Sree Kanteerava Stadium, on Thursday.
The 2018 qualifiers have so far proved disastrous for the home side, despite being placed in a group where two teams were below India in the Fifa rankings, before the start of the meet. Yet, Stephen Constantine's boys were beaten twice by Oman, in home and away matches, and also by Guam, Turkmenistan and the mighty Iran, to be left without a point in five matches.
The performance of the Indian team has gone from bad to worse in the last four months. As per Fifa statistics, India are the second "worst movers" in Asia, having come down to 172 in the rankings from a position of 156 in July. Guam, the tiny Pacific Island nation, on the other hand, have moved to 155, despite their average position being 192 since the creation of the Fifa rankings.
No wonder the India coach tried to play down the situation and called the rivals "favourites" in the home match. "Guam have seven points... they are above us in the Fifa rankings. On paper, they are obviously the favourites.
"But at the end of the day, it's what you do on the pitch that determines the result," Constantine said.
The coach is right. But at the same time, his men so far have not done much on the pitch. Their most shocking performance was against Guam in the away tie, which they lost 1-2. The coach later spoke about how Guam were strengthened by the inclusion of their US based players, but it was India's performance that eventually settled the result of that encounter.
The other day, stopper back Arnab Mondal admitted: "People speak about the weather, the ground conditions when we played Guam in Guam. But simply put, they were better than us." What Arnab did not say was that it was one of India's worst showings in many months and they couldn't improve much in the later matches. Barring Sunil Chetri, none of the other players could impress, though lots of hopes were pinned on Robin Singh, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Eugeneson Lyngdoh and company.
Despite all the unfavourable results in the past few months, India would be going into the match almost unprepared. While the Indian players assembled at Bangalore only on Sunday, the visitors are there from last Friday.
Constantine had asked for longer camps before the away matches against Turkmenistan and Oman and the home match against Guam, but his proposal was turned down by the federation. The AIFF was in no mood to antagonise the ISL franchises and preferred to stick to the Fifa stature, under which the clubs could release the players three days before an international tie.
Thursday's tie could be even more difficult for the hosts - Guam are still in the race with seven points, while India have already been eliminated. Guam coach Gary White had made his intentions clear when he said: "We known that India have got to show that they have some pride. They cannot qualify but we can. We have to prove that our motivations and passion can beat theirs. The game will be lot different to the game in Guam," he said.
India have so far played two matches at the Kanteerava in the qualifiers. The first against Oman was lost 1-2, a match where the Indians did well and could have earned a draw. In the second, India were outplayed by Iran 0-3.
The Iran coach, Carlos Queiroz, however, had a word of praise for the spirit India displayed in the early half. He also picked up striker Sunil Chetri for special praise. India's best showing in Bangalore came in 2001 when they stunned UAE by a solitary goal in the World Cup qualifiers.
♦ Kick-off at 7pm
