SAFF Championship 2013: India 1-0 Pakistan – Five talking points

Sportskeeda reviews India’s 1-0 win over Pakistan in their opening SAFF Championship 2013 fixture by listing the five talking points.

Left flank a major problem for India

As anticipated before the tournament, India’s left flank was badly exposed by Pakistan for almost three quarters of the game. With first choice left back Gurjinder Kumar ruled out of the tournament due to injury, Wim Koevermans and his coaching staff strangely called up new Mumbai Tigers signing Nallappan Mohanraj, who has hardly played in the last 24 months. Meanwhile, regular wide midfielder Clifford Miranda also had to be left out of the squad due to a knock and thus the only attack minded left-footed player in the team was striker Jeje Lalpekhlua.

Koevermans made a bold decision to start Jeje in left midfield with Mohanraj right behind him and the decision could have easily proved costly had Pakistan taken their chances. Jeje didn’t do too badly but the Mizoram youngster very rarely looked a threat. Mohanraj looked completely out of sorts and was destroyed by Pakistan’s right midfielder Mohammed Adil.

At least on three occasions in the game, Mohanraj was easily beaten and he didn’t even look like recovering. It was only after the introduction of the versatile Syed Rahim Nabi that India were able to stop the attacks on the left but it was also down to the fading fitness of Pakistan in the final quarter of the match. Nabi is expected to start against Bangladesh at left back but he too hasn’t played in that position often in the last 7-8 months. Koevermans would also have to take a call about the left midfield role as playing Jeje out of position again might negate his attacking threat in the game.

Pakistan are still in contention

They might have lost the opener against their arch-rivals but Pakistan’s performance in the game should give them the confidence to get results in their final two group games and qualify for the semi-finals for the first time since 2005. The green shirts started the game slowly and conceded a very unfortunate goal, but after the first 20 minutes, they started dominating possession with Denmark-based striker Hassan Bashir’s movement causing the India defence all sorts of problems.

Mohammed Adil was another standout player as he terrorised Mohanraj and was extremely unfortunate not to have a couple of assists at least. In truth, Pakistan looked a technically superior side largely due to the presence of their foreign-born players but coaching consultant Mohammed Shamlan and head coach Shahzad Anwar will be disappointed with the team’s finishing and the way their physical level dropped in the second half.

Pakistan were unable to provide any threat in the final third and looked to have run out of legs as many of their players didn’t track back to stop India’s counter attacks. In fact, Pakistan could have easily conceded three of four in the latter stages had India skipper Sunil Chhetri been more clinical. They next have a must-win game against Nepal and have every chance of recording three points from it if they repeat their first half performance from the India game. But Pakistan will have to deal with the influence of the home fans and memories of the twin wins over Nepal in Kathmandu earlier should enhance their self belief.

India squad’s inexperience evident

While previewing the tournament and India’s first game, Sportskeeda had pointed out the lack of international experience in Wim Koevermans’ squad as only six of the 20 players have 20 or more caps for India. That lack of experience was particularly evident in the performance of two young and yet talented players. Centre back Arnab Mondal was brilliant in the air and brave in the tackles. He also made a couple of important blocks but the East Bengal player was exposed in a couple of one-on-one situations when he got too tight and allowed his man to get past him.

Arnab was also guilty of going for the final tackle on a couple of occasions and will have to quickly learn from his mistakes if he wants to keep his place in the starting eleven. 21-year-old Alywn George is another player whose inexperience was visible. Alwyn started in his natural number 10 role just behind skipper Sunil and did show a couple of nice touches. But overall the youngster failed to get into the game and hardly had any impact. As a result, he was replaced by Jewel Raja at the interval and could lose his place in the starting eleven against Bangladesh.

The performances of Arnab and Alwyn should remind everyone the value of international experience. Koevermans has got a lot of criticism from fans for starting with Gouramangi Singh although the Manipuri hasn’t been in the best of forms at club level. But the 28-year-old had a calming influence on the defence against Pakistan. On a worrying note, any injury to Sunil could see India panic as the alternatives are Robin Singh and Dawson Fernandes who dont even have 10 caps between them while Jeje is being used as a left midfielder.

Sunil Chhetri cannot be wasteful

It is no secret that India are overdependent on captain Sunil Chhetri and that was evident in the Pakistan game as well because no other player looked like scoring. However, worryingly, the 29-year-old skipper was uncharacteristically wasteful in front of goal as he squandered around five chances, with three of them being one-on-one situations. Sunil even failed to hit the target on those three golden opportuities and something like that can affect the confidence of the very best players also.

The current squad, in any case lacks, experience and confidence because of some poor results in this calendar year and the last thing that Koevermans would want is his star player to lose form. India might have got away with such dismal finishing against Pakistan but will surely be punished by Afghanistan or Maldives if they don’t take their chances. Sunil clearly has a lot of pressure on his shoulders and has stepped up in the past like the last SAFF Championship in New Delhi where he finished the tournament’s best player and top scorer.

However, as daunting as it sounds, Sunil might have to repeat that showing and possibly even better that somehow because his team has got weaker in the last two years. Besides the goals and assists, Sunil will also have to lead by example and help out the youngsters in the squad. He would also have to keep himself fit of course and even that won’t be easy considering the fixture congestion at SAFF 2013 and the fact that he hasn’t played 90 minutes too often in the last 12 months.

Francis Fernandes is highly underrated

India clearly don’t have too many match winners besides Sunil Chhetri. Maybe Nabi can also be regarded as another but otherwise it’s a squad full of players who lack international experience. However, there is one player who has been fairly consistent at international level but his showings have gone unnoticed in the media and among fans as his contribution hasn’t involved goals or direct assists. That player is wide midfielder Francis Fernandes who gave another solid performance against Pakistan and was one of the few standout performers for India.

The Salgaocar man is highly versatile and made his international debut under the coaching of Savio Medeira in November 2011. The 27-year-old was also included in the squad during Koevermans’ first assignment at Nehru Cup 2012 and has kept his place in the team ever since. Francis tried to put in a cross whenever he got a chance and tracked back consistently to help out NirmalChettri at right back. Pakistan hardly had any joy from their left side and much of it was down to the work rate of Francis. He kept going till the very last minute and despite a good showing hasn’t got carried away as at a media interaction on Monday he called for focus in the remaining two group games.

Francis, though, would aim to get on the scoresheet in this tournament as the absence of the injured Clifford Miranda means that India currently don’t have a midfielder who has a decent scoring record at international level. Despite not making the headlines, Francis has established himself as an important player of the Wim Koevermans era.