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