Official Indian(South Asian Champs) Football Thread [R]

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

How (where) do you buy a set-top box in India, and what kind of provider do you need? Is it a regional cable provider or satellite? Also, is it limited to specific few cities like Bombay? Do you know if you can get one to work in Banglore?

Sorry, that's a lot of questions. But that's the first time I've heard of set-top boxes in India.

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

in bombay you can get it from your regional cable provider... it costs about 4500 rupees and theres no additional fee - its a one-time investment - even your monthly bill does not increase (ours in bombay is 400 rupees/month)... forget the 900 channels, the clarity and reception alone is reason enough to buy it...

id gone home to india after two years this winter, having only travelled to the UK and europe in the meanwhile cos i couldnt afford long vacations, so this was a new concept to me... i wanted to watch a prem match and our cable guy switches the frequencies of star and espn depending on the programming, so that people can watch the more popular programme with better reception... well, we couldnt watch both espn and star once, so i called him up to tune it so that we could...

came over in half an hour, told me it was out of range on our tv (and its not like we have a bad tv), so i was miffed cos wed only recently bought a new tv...!

he suggested this set top box thing, so i said i wanted to see a demo cos i wasnt quite ready to buy his claim about immaculate reception and 100s of channels...
well, he came back within 20 mins (we live in pali hill, bombay and the cable guy is just down the hill) with a demo piece... i decided to buy it immediately and called my dad at work, threatening to pay for it myself if he didnt!
well, obviously hed have none of that, so he paid for it!

anyway, the cable guy said itd take about 3-4 days for them to get a new piece and i was having none of that so i told him to leave his demo piece behind until he got us the new one... after conferring with his boss, they agreed and we've been enjoying 900 channels of digital quality reception and entertainment ever since (incl satellite radio plus international channels like bloomberg, RAI TV and RTP internacional)... bloomberg itself costs a crazy amount to order separately in india, so as soon as my dad saw that it was included he was chuffed and that was his 'paisa vasooli' right there!

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

Interesting story. I'll do more investigation on this in the Bangalore area and some other adjacent areas next time I'm there.

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

I too have the set top box(volarodesk). But only MUTv, Primasports (a syrian channel), and a channel with an eagle's symbol and the number 5 below it ( an arab or persian channel) show football. MUTv, mostly have reruns of the matches during those days when Man Utd had something to be proud of. In every week, the 1999 Champions League final goals are showm atleast 4 times. Suprisingly they do not show the games lives, and I have to switchover to ESPN or Star sports.
Primasports shows live games from French league, with arabic. I generally do not watch those. The 'eagle' tv shows some iranian club matches. Real Madrid Tv I do not get. Do they just air interviews of the players and match repeats, or do they show live games?

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

India playing away in Yokohama in 2 degrees ? Its going be tough for Japan to even get a draw

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

3-0 to Japan, is what I predict

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

According to my personal anticipation, the ultimate ranking would be

1. Japan
2. Saudi Arabia
3. Yemen
4. India

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

I believe that India will win 3-1

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

in japan? ill be happy to come back with anything better than a four goal loss!

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

I'm going to watch Japan LIVE later tonight in a friendly against USA in San Francisco. (5 more hours to go, can hardly wait.) I'll be rooting for Japan to lose like crazy. They've brought mostly an Asian based team here. Most of the big European based players, including Nakata are not in the squad. I'll do whatever scouting I can do on Japan and report here.

But seriously, people. If you think India has any chance of beating this Japan team on their soil, in this weather, I have to call you crazy.

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

Instead of pumping more money into marketing and waiting years for the Indian domestic league to develop, I think India would get more ROI by hiring a good foreign coach. Doesn't have to be a "supercoach" like Eriksson, Hiddink, or Mourinho. Just someone capable of taking India to the next level.

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

Bora Milutinovic?

He is the only crazy man I know of, who would love to take the job.

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

Bora Milutinivic? The ex Nigeria, Costa Rica, China coach? He has taken 5 differnt nations to the WC. Who is he leading for 2006?

I would prefer a character like Otto Rehagel, who knows his team's weaknesses (and there are many) and makes a game play accordingly. How about Giovanni Trapatonni, he just got the sack at Stuttgart. Maybe the AIFF should hire him, before someone euro club takes him.

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

I got back from the match some 90 minutes ago. Both USA and Japan brought their B teams with no European based players. The USA B team completely dominated and humiliated Japan B team in early goings. Shinji Ono and Alex Santos, 2 of best Japanese players were made to look completely useless.

Later on, Bruce Arena - USA manager - cleared his bench, and let a bunch of no-names pull on the USA shirt. There was no team chemistry present at that point. In that commotion, Japan, with their own substitutions scored a couple of crap goals.

What does this mean for India when they face Japan? In all honesty, even this poor looking Japanese B team should be ahead of Japan in fitness levels. And add the cold weather into the equation. I still don't think India has any chance. But I'm not telling you anything new, am I?

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

And USA in 1994 too.

Nobody that I know of.

Ha! Trappatoni!!! That's one funny dude. I remember him from his Fiorentina days. He looks like he could have a heart attack any minute.

In all seriousness, I feel Bora Milutinovic is the only crazy dude who would take the India job in a snap.

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

This is the team for the freindly against HK, and for the qualifier against Japan:
==========================================================
he latest Indian Senior squad (207 Asian Cup qualifiers probables / dated Jan. 28, 2006)

Goalkeepers:
Subroto Pal (Mohun Bagan AC), Sandip Nandy (Mahindra United), Kalyan Chaubey (JCT Mills), Felix D'Souza (Sporting Clube de Goa)

Defenders:
Irungbam Surkumar Singh, Mahesh Gawli, Nanjangud Shivananju Manju (all Mahindra United), Muttath Suresh, Anupam Sarkar (both East Bengal Club), Sanjeev Kumar Maria (Mohun Bagan AC), Naduparambil Pappachan Pradeep (State Bank of Travancore), Deepak Kumar Mondal (Mahindra United)

Midfielders
Steven Dias, James Singh, Krishnan Nair Ajayan (all Mahindra United), Mehtab Hussain, Mehraj Din Wadoo, Manjit Singh, Dharamjit Singh (all Mohun Bagan AC), Xavier Vijayakumar (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited SC), Jayanta Sen (East Bengal Club)

Forwards:
Baichung Bhutia, Syed Rahim Nabi (both East Bengal Club), MA Abdul Hakkim (State Bank of Travancore), Abhishek Yadav (Mahindra United), Praveen Kumar (JCT Mills), Shaji D'Silva (Indian Navy), Sampath Kumar Kuttimani (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited)

On standby:
Rajat Ghosh Dasdidar (GK, East Bengal Club), Habibur Rehman Mondal (DF, East Bengal), Alvito D'Cunha (MF, East Bengal Club), Ishfaq Ahmed (FW, Dempo SC), Nicholas L Rodrigues (FW, Sporting Clube de Goa)

Replaced players (due to injuries):
OUT: Samir Naik (DF, Dempo SC) / IN: Deepak Kumar Mondal (DF, Mahindra United)
OUT: Shanmugam Venkatesh (MF, Mahindra United) / IN: Naduparambil Pappachan Pradeep (DF, State Bank of Travancore)
OUT: Climax Lawrence (MF, Dempo SC) / IN: Sampath Kumar Kuttimani (FW, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited)

Chief Coach:
Syed Nayeemuddin

Assistent Coach:
Gabriel Joseph

Goalkeeper Coach:
Atanu Bhattacharya

Manager:
PK Banerjee
===========================================================
From these, the only people I think play decent are Bhaichung and Abhishek Yadav. Does anybody have the Japanese squad for the game?

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

Anybody who thinks coach Nayeemuddin is not taking the game serious should read this, he EXPECTS to win against Japan. It is close to impossible but maybe India has a surprise:

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1012378

I can tell you this coach is strict and focusses hard on conditioning, and he will make the boys play like a team like in the SAFF cup. India's last coach Stephen Constantine was a foreigner but the way the AIFF is run (corrupt, unproffessional) and the language and culture difference a foreign coach cannot do much it is better to train Indian junior coaches.

Abhishek Yadav has not played much since injury, look out for Syed Rahim Nabi and Mehtab Hussain. I also predict 3-0 to Japan but who knows

 

Re: Chances of india (SOUTH ASIAN CHAMPIONS)

most if not all - but only the real fans will ever know of them... theyre hardly ever advertised... (and i dont mean 'hardly' by US standards - which is worth mentioning here!)