Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Pre-Olympic Qualifier: India to Face the Lions at Their Den


India U-23 Football team left for Yangon yesterday to face Myanmar in the second leg of Pre-Olympic Qualifiers to be played in the Capital city of Myanmar on March 9, 2011. After winning the first leg by a 2-1 margin last month at Pune Balawadi Stadium, India hopes to secure another win to march into the first round of qualifying for the London 2012 Olympic.

While Arindam Bhattacharya, Nirmal Chhetri and Mohanraj have missed the flight to Yangon due to injury, Robin Singh and CS Sabeeth have been included in the list of eighteen after missing the home game due to their registration not being completed. However with both available now, Bulpin has to make a tough choice as to who to start with as both Jeje and Malsawmfela are also in good form and both has scored in the 2-1 victory at home.

Despite the tough choice, Bulpin is likely to start with his Indian Arrow custodian as he said to Goal.com “I must point that our strikers from Indian Arrows, i.e., Jeje and Fela have scored as many goals as Robin and Sabeeth. And mind you, the goals were scored without any assists from foreign players.”
“This will be a big decision but I won’t underestimate our boys from Indian Arrows as the record of the other two strikers is no better which is a very important stat and a fact,” he explained.

On the contrary, Myanmar is a technically good side and playing them at their den will not be easy for the Indians as they will have their crowds backing them up. Most importantly they have an away goal advantage will they will try to capitalize on.

However with Coach Bulpin and his boys confident of a good show, we all hope that India wins the match and progress to the Qualifying round of the 2012 London Olympic.

Good Luck Team India.

The Squad:
Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Jagroop Singh
Defenders: Abhishek Das, Raju Gaekwad (Captain), Lalrozama Fenai, Deepak Devrani, Vishal Kumar, Inderpreet Singh
Midfielders: Lalrindika Ralte, Jewel Raja Sheikh, Shilton D’Silva, Jibon Singh, Ongram Milan Singh, Subodh Kumar
Strikers: Jeje Lalpekhlua, Malswamfela, Robin Singh, C.S. Sabeeth

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