Tag: Afghanistan

AFC Proposes New Dates for the Postponed World Cup Qualifiers

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AFC, India, Football, Qatar, Afghanistan

Asian Football Confederation has proposed new dates for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 Asian Qualifiers that were supposed to take place in March and June 2020.

AFC was forced to postpone the qualifiers due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic across the world. Now that the world is limping back to normalcy, AFC has released the new dates for the qualifiers. 

Matchdays 7 and 8 that were postponed will now take place on October 8 and 13 and Matchdays 9 and 10 will take place on November 12 and 17, 2020. 

According to the latest schedule released by the AFC, the following are the match dates for India. 

  • 08 – October 2020 – India vs Qatar 
  • 12 – November 2020 – Bangladesh vs India
  • 17 – November 2020 – India vs Afghanistan

India’s last world cup qualifier was played on 19 November 2019 against Oman in a away tie which they lost by 1-0. The home tie against Qatar which was supposed to take place on 26 – March -2020 was scheduled at the Kalinga stadium in Bhubaneswar. Now, with the rescheduled dates, we will have to wait for the All India Football Federation to announce the new venue. 

The Asian Football Confederation press note regarding the proposed new dates have also mentioned that the AFC will continue to monitor COVID-19 situation in its respective member countries and will notify the member associations if there is a need to reassess the match schedules due to the ever-present COVID-19 threat. They have also mentioned that they have come out and announced these dates with a view to complete the Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 2 by November 2020. 

With COVID-19 posing a considerable threat in India even today, it will have to be seen how the plans of AFC to conduct the World Cup/ Asian Cup qualifiers will pan out. We will keep you updated on the latest developments in the coming days/months.

India thrash Nepal 6-0 to become 3rd time SAFF Champions

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India, Nepal, Womens, SAFF, Indianfootball, Bangladesh, Maldives, Afghanistan, Bala Devi, Manipur, South Asia, Womens Football, SoccerIndian women’s football team put on a splendid performance to thrash Nepal 6-0 in the finals to lift the cup the third time in a succession. Bala Devi scored four goals for India in the finals.

After a relatively slow start to the match, India started their goal glut by the 26th minute through Kamala Devi. From then on the hapless Nepal team wilted under Indian dominance. In the last five minutes of the first half, Bala Devi struck twice as India lead 3-0 at halftime.

Within two minutes into the second half India scored again through Romi Devi. From then on, India scored at will till the final minutes taking the tally to half a dozen goals. Bala Devi doubled her tally to four in the match by scoring in the 51st and 92nd minute of the match.

India was in Group A of the tournament along with Bangladesh, Maldives and Afghanistan. In the group matches India defeated Maldives 8-0, Bangladesh 5-1, Afghanistan 12-0. And in the semi finals they routed Sri Lanka 5-0.

India Squad Finals :

India played 5 matches, scored 36 goals and conceded one. Baladevi who has been in terrific form had earlier told the Pakistan media that her target is to score 16 goals in the tournament. In fact she did achieve her target and 16 goals is the highest tally in a single edition of the championship, since its inception in 2010.

 

Video : Interview with Zohib Islam Amiri, Afghanistan captain and Mumbai FC defender

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Watch this excellent interview with Zohib Islam Amiri,  Afghanistan captain and Mumbai FC defender, where he talks about winning SAFF Championship, his opinion on Indian football, how was it to live in Afghanistan as a child and so on.

Due to credits to Firstpost.com on this excellent interview.


Also make sure you read this excellent transcript of the whole interview : Running from bombs: The stunning story of Afghan footballer Zohib Amiri 

Sandjar Ahmadi, Afghanistan international joins Mumbai FC

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Image Courtesy : http://www.ndr.de/

Image Courtesy : http://www.ndr.de/

There were reports about Mumbai FC being in talks with Sandjar Ahmadi, the Afghan international who was playing for the German side  – SC Vier-und Marschlande. Yesterday it became obvious when Zohib Islam Amiri, Afghanistan captain and Mumbai FC defender put a picture of him and Sandjar on his Facebook page, taken from Mumbai.

I cross checked with  Zohib  and he confirmed that Sandjar Ahmadi has in fact joined the Mumbai outfit. Sandjar plays as a winger and impressed with his good performances at the recently concluded 2013 SAFF championship. He also scored two crucial goals in the championship, the solitary goal against Nepal in the semifinal that took Afghanistan to the finals and the second goal that sealed the final against India.

At 21 years, Sandjar Ahamadi is a good addition to the Mumbai FC squad and Zohib’s presence in the Mumabi FC squad would have definitely influenced his decision to join the Mumbai outfit.

Subroto Cup to have teams from Ukraine, Oman, Bangladesh and Afghanistan

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Image : Subroto Cup facebook page

Image : Subroto Cup facebook page

2013 edition of Subroto Cup will have teams from Ukraine, Oman, Bangladesh and Afghanistan apart from school teams from India. The 54th edition of Subroto Cup has grown bigger with 81 teams battling out for Under-14, Under-17 boys and U-17 girls accolades.

Age fraud which had marred the previous editions of the cup will be tackled harshly this time around says the organizers.

Apart from that organizers have written to all I-league clubs to help them for scouting talent during the country’s biggest inter-school tournament.

Read more : Subroto Cup organisers seek I-league club support

Kushal Das sings praise of the Indian football team

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Kushal Das

Image Courtesy: http://gulfnews.com/

Yesterday it was the turn of legends to go trigger happy criticizing Indian coach over the SAFF Cup debacle, AIFF Secretary is probably the lone voice who is supporting the Indian football team who lost to Afghanistan.  He even went to an extent saying that in a long time, this has been the best performance from an Indian team!

Read more : Greats slam coach as AIFF secretary sings praise