A black day in Indian football - first division player collapses on the pitch, dies

A black day in Indian football - first division player collapses on the pitch, dies

Bangalore Mars striker, Venkatesh D, 23, collapsed on the football field at Bangalore Football Stadium. This unfortunate incident happened at 87th minute when his team was playing against South Western (SW) Railway in BDFA A Division league. Venkatesh’s team was leading 2-0 when he collapsed on ground. 

No ambulance was present at the stadium. Venkatesh’s teammates hired an auto rickshaw and took him to closest hospital, Hosmat Hospital, for immediate treatment. However, he was declared dead on arrival by the doctors. 

Doctors suggest a natural death at first sight. The exact cause of death can be ascertained only after the postmortem report comes out. His body was taken to Bowring Hospital for postmortem.

As if the Cristioano Junior’s incident, occurred more than seven years ago was not enough. As if Arun Kumar death, occurred less than a year ago was not enough. 

The disastrous event just exposes the pathetic state of Indian football. This was just waiting to happen. With no trained physicians, no ambulance, how can you manage competitive top division football? Simply just not possible using with a mere pain spray and ice pack! 

An absolute callousness from the part of the organizers, shame BDFA, shame KSFA. A black day in Indian football! 

Venkatesh, football in Bangalore will be poorer without you. Rest in peace, brother!

Botafogo Had a Tough time against Chirag Kerala

Brazil’s Botafogo FC scored deep in to the second half injury time to register their first win in the 116th IFA Shield 2012, at the cost of Chirag United Kerala who crashed out of the tournament after their second loss in the group stages. It was Botafogo’s Alvez Alveira who found the soul goal of the match from a pass off Jao Marcos in a match that saw Chirag getting reduced to 10 men as Vineeth CK saw the red card in the second half.

The visitors from Brazil began the match well as they produced some attempts on goal, but Chirag United’s captain on goal Sharath K managed to keep the score sheet unscathed. Alvez created the first chance fro Botafogo as he produced a shot on goal, but hit straight at the keeper.

Chirag were also on chances in the first half. David Sunday had couple of his shots saved by the Botafogo keeper Milton. Sukhwinder Singh also had a shot on target as his freekick was saved by the keeper late in the first half. The score remained 0-0 at half time.

The second half saw Chirag Kerala produce some impressive moves early on as they missed some great chances to take the lead. First, David Sunday’s header from Sajesh cross was saved by the keeper. Then, Manoj’s shot from inside the six yard box failed to find the target. Chirag were running out of luck here. That was proven when their playmaker Vineeth CK was shown his second yellow and sent off by the referee in the 61st minute.

Botafogo went on in search of that elusive goal, but they had to wait till the third minute of injury time to grab it. It was Alvez who received the ball from Jao Marcos and bulleted the shot into the Chirag goal that turned out to be a winner in the final minute of the match.

Savio Medeira confident of improved show v/s Philippines

India got off to an extremely disappointing start in AFC Challenger Cup after a hapless 2-0 loss against Tajikistan in their opening match. There were certain doubts regarding Savio Medeira’s selection of the starting XI and the final result, a 2-0 loss, confirmed those doubts. Philippines also made a losing start to their tournament losing to North Korea with an identical scoreline.

Medeira opted to start without Jewel Raja, one of the most consistent central midfielders in Indian football, instead choosing to start Adil Khan along with Rocus Lamere. While Rocus has some experience in international football, Adil just made his debut a few days back. Their inexperience showed as the match wore on as India were torn apart in center of the park. Rocus showed good work-rate but Adil gradually fizzled out after an encouraging start. Worse, there was absolutely no supply to the strikers upfront and the Blue Tigerswere over-dependent on the wings.

Indian defence has been pretty ordinary in recent matches and things didn’t improve in this game either. Raju Gaikwad still looks rusty thanks to a long injury lay-off while Gourmangi’s run of indifferent form is now starting to become a big cause of concern. Samir Naik and Nabi’s forward surges left acres of space behind, which central defence was unable to deal with as Tajik’s took advantage of the open spaces. Indian defence was all over the place in second half and will be grateful to Tajik strikers’ profligacy for a 2-0 scoreline.

If midfield and defence didn’t hold up the forward line was dismal as well. Tajikistan defence was expected to be stubborn, being one of the two teams (with North Korea) to have not conceded a goal in the qualification round. India created just two chances in the match. Sushil Singh, who rarely performs well but astonishingly gets selected all the time, dropped deeper in an effort to link up with retreating midfield but failed to make an impact. Sunil Chhetri’s main contribution in the match was setting up a chance for Anthony Perreira. Jeje Lalpekhlua, who scored 4 of the 7 goals India scored in qualifiers is clearly being missed.

Despite a discouraging performance in first match Savio Medeira is unlikely to make sweeping changes across the board before the do or die clash with Philippines. Two of the most likely changes in starting XI can be Jewel Raja in place of Adil Khan and Joachim Abranches instead of Sushil. Abranches found himself in a goal scoring position minutes after coming on against Tajikistan, something Sushil could not manage in 81 minutes of football. Despite the loss in first match Blue Tigers are still not out of the hunt for a place in semi-finals. If they do not defeat Philippines, AFC Challenge Cup 2012 will be more or less over Savio Medeira’s team.

Probable Starting XI (4-4-2): Karanjit(GK); Naik, Gaikwad, Gourmangi, Nabi; Anthony, Jewel, Rocus, Francis; Abranches, Chhetri