India’s poor record against West Asian nations

Action from India’s 2-2 draw with UAE in July 2011

India’s first opponents of 2013 will be West Asian outfit Palestine, who are placed 14 spots higher than India in the FIFA Rankings at 152. Despite being up against a higher-ranked team, the Indian national team will be looking to make the most of their home advantage and get a positive result at Kochi’s Nehru Stadium on February 6.

However, it’s worth noting that India have a poor record against West Asian nations, both home and away. It’s true that there is a gulf in class between India and the majority of the West Asian teams, but that wasn’t the case during India’s glory days in the 50s, with the gold at the 1951 Asian Games coming with a 1-0 win over Iran in the final, thanks to a goal from Sahu Mewalal.

Another notable result against West Asian opposition was the goalless draw with Iran in the 1984 Asian Cup in Singapore.

One of India’s most famous results in international football also came against a West Asian country. We are referring to the 1-0 win over UAE in 2001 in the 2002 World Cup qualifiers. Midfielder Jules Alberto scored the winner as Sukhwinder Singh’s side defeated a team that was then ranked 64th in the world.

However, since then the results against West Asian opposition have been disappointing, thus giving an indication of how far India have gone behind in the continent.

Since that victory over UAE, India have met teams from West Asia on 26 occasions. They have registered only four wins, drawn five times and lost 17 matches.

Three of the four wins have come against Syria on home soil, with the most recent one being the 2-1 victory in the 2012 Nehru Cup.

The other win has possibly been India’s best away result in the last decade. It came on November 5, 2004, in an international friendly against Kuwait in Kuwait. India, who were at that time coached by Stephen Constantine, came from behind twice to win 3-2, with goals from Tomba Singh, Jerry Zirsanga and Abhishek Yadav. In July 2011, India did beat Qatar 2-1 in Qatar, but that was an unofficial match.

The five draws have all come in World Cup qualifiers, with the 2-2 stalemate against UAE in July 2011 ending a six-match losing streak against countries from West Asia.

Wim Koevermans will be determined to gradually improve India’s record against West Asian teams, and beating Palestine would be a great start. Palestine are one of the weakest teams of West Asia, and thus India should be aiming to get a positive result and build confidence ahead of the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers in March.

Here is a table on India’s results against West Asian opposition since that upset 1-0 win over UAE on April 8, 2001.

Opponent	Home/Away	Score	Competition	Indian Goalscorer(s)	Date
Yemen	Home	1-1	WCQ 2002	Bhaichung Bhutia	April 15 2001
UAE	Away	0-1	WCQ 2002	-	April 26 2001
Yemen	Away	3-3	WCQ 2002	Jo Paul Ancheri (2), IM Vijayan	May 4 2001
Oman	Home	1-5	WCQ 2006	Renedy Singh	March 31 2004
Kuwait	Away	3-2	International Friendly	Tomba Singh, Jerry Zirsanga, Abhishek Yadav	November 5 2004
Oman	Away	0-0	WCQ 2006	-	November 11 2004
Yemen	Home	0-3	2007 Asian Cup Qualifiers	-	March 1 2006
Saudi Arabia	Home	0-3	2007 Asian Cup Qualifiers	-	August 16 2006
Saudi Arabia	Away	1-7	2007 Asian Cup Qualifiers	NS Manju	September 6 2006
Yemen	Away	1-2	2007 Asian Cup Qualifiers	NP Pradeep	November 15 2006
Syria	Home	2-3	Nehru Cup 2007 round robin stage	Sunil Chhetri, K Ajayan	August 23 2007
Syria	Home	1-0	Nehru Cup 2007 final	NP Pradeep	August 29 2007
Lebanon	Away	1-4	WCQ 2010	Sunil Chhetri	October 8 2007
Lebanon	Home	2-2	WCQ 2010	Sunil Chhetri, Steven Dias	October 30 2007
Lebanon	Home	0-1	Nehru Cup 2009 round robin stage	-	August 19 2009
Syria	Home	0-1	Nehru Cup 2009 round robin stage	-	August 29 2009
Syria	Home	0-0 (India won 5-4 on penalties)	Nehru Cup 2009 final	-	August 31 2009
Yemen	Home	3-6	International Friendly	Yemen OG, Abhishek Yadav, Surkumar Singh	October 13 2010
Iraq	Neutral	0-2	International Friendly	-	November 11 2010
Kuwait	Neutral	1-9	International Friendly	Mohammed Rafi	November 14 2010
UAE	Away	0-5	International Friendly	-	November 18 2010
Bahrain	Neutral	2-5	Asian Cup 2011	Gouramangi Singh, Sunil Chhetri	January 14 2011
UAE	Away	0-3	WCQ 2014	-	July 23 2011
UAE	Home	2-2	WCQ 2014	Gouramangi Singh, Jeje Lalpekhlua	July 28 2011
Oman	Away	1-5	International Friendly	Joaquim Abranches	February 23 2012
Syria	Home	2-1	Nehru Cup 2012 round robin stage	Sunil Chhetri, Anthony Pereira	August 22 2012