The Afghan coach just made a bizarre rant about the beds at Hilton Hotel being too small, which apparently caused two players to fall out of it . He's clearly Yousef Kargar in disguise.
I am not a fan of the 7 team format. What if the third-placed team in group B has a better showing than the 2nd place team in Group A?
That's bound to happen with Bhutan in Group B, anyway. GoalNepal website indicates that all the opponents of Pakistan have been awarded 1-0 wins against them by default.
It seems SAFF championship does not have the required level of professionalism this year. Afghanistan team suffered a lot, and now it is Nepal turn.
The Maldivian Consulate in Trivandrum have expressed their disappointment regarding the poor planning of the tournament organizers. According to the spokesperson, you wouldn't have a clue that the tournament is about to begin even if you walk around the match venue. Due to the lack of media coverage, ticket sales are disappointingly low even by SAFF standards. Meanwhile, WSG appear to be deliberately ignoring journalists and their questions regarding their below par marketing with regards to the tournament. Their decision to award India with hosting rights appear to have blown in their faces.
More egg on the faces of WSG, as they got absolutely lambasted by the head coaches and captains of Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and even India, in addition to a sneaky little dig by Bangladesh. Curiously, all of these teams had booked same hotel for their players, but were taken to completely different destinations when they first arrived. The Sri Lankan contingent were also asked to "Come back tomorrow"! Members of the Trivandrum District Football Association also hijacked the inaugural press conference and insisted that WSG had to take full responsibility for the shoddy organization. They also insisted that WSG had excluded them from all organizing activities, at which point WSG officials unplugged the sound system and an argument between the two parties proceeded, forcing the captains photoshoot to be cancelled. SAFF tournaments have always been riddled with examples of poor organization, but this is just a whole new level of amateurishness.
Bags of piss and loud music outside the team hotels is a norm in Central America. This is more a case of sheer organizational incompetence rather than India having a vendetta against other teams.
Totally agree, its very common in South America too. But the organisers are very competent in their organisation for accomodation, food, and training facilities, the loud music etc comes from the fans to cause grief to the opposing team... In this instance, its not the fans, its the organisers are plain unprofessional and poor!
India are probably having it hardest. Not only were their accommodation arrangements lacking, but several clubs, most notably Bengaluru FC have outright refused to released their players for the tournament, regardless of whether they played in the recently concluded ISL or not. So players missing out this time include their forward duo captain Sunil Chhetri and Robin Singh. Stephen Constantine is understandably livid.
Alright no better time to predict the results: Group A: Nepal 3-1 Sri Lanka India 3-1 Sri Lanka Nepal 2-1 India Group B: Maldives 4-1 Bhutan Afghanistan 2-0 Bangladesh Maldives 2-2 Bangladesh Afghanistan 5-0 Bhutan Bhutan 2-1 Bangladesh Afghanistan 2-1 Maldives Semis: Nepal 2-3 Maldives Afghanistan 3-1 India Final: Afghanistan 2-0 Maldives
I think Afghanistan and Maldives are well ahead of the rest of the pack. India and Nepal are really depleted, with the latter still recovering from the tragic earthquake and a match-fixing scandal. Bangladesh have played against really tough opponents in the World Cup qualifiers and might just surprise us, but their pre-tournament preparations have been lacking.
Well, that typified Nepali football. Their players huffed and puffed without creating too many meaningful chances, before getting undone by a combination of terrible defending and opportunism by their opponents.
I also think it will be an Afghanistan-Maldives final. Last time Afghanistan won the title in very Afghan-friendly conditions (high altitude). This time around, the Maldives should feel right at home with the heat and humidity.
I agree they will usually dominate possession but nothing really comes from. Hopefully for them that Bimal kid will come good as he could be that missing piece to thier puzzle. They remind me Afghanistan under Kargar but with less quality .
Bangladesh should benefit from this aswell. Lets hope training in Qatar will have made everyone used to these conditions.
Maldives should have scored more and our finishing needs to improve, because I don't trust our defence at all on that performance. It was nice to see the amount of work the Bhutan players put today. Sure beat their limp performances of the past.
The Afghan team looked like they collectively had a bad hair day. Nepal-India and Afghanistan-Maldives should be exciting!