Football: India's quarter-final
chances suffer a jolt
India crashed to their first defeat in the Asian Games football tournament when they lost to China 0-2 in a crucial Group C league match in Yangsan on Thursday.
The defeat, India's first in three games after wins over
Bangladesh and Turkmenistan, also dealt a serious blow to
their hopes of progressing to the next round, a feat last
achieved in the 1982 Asiad in New Delhi.
In other matches of the day, Yemen beat Vietnam 2-0 while Thailand shocked UAE 3-1.
The win enabled China top Group C and book a place in the
last eight while India will now have to see whether they can
find a berth as the best second-placed team from among Groups
B, C and D.
Coach Stephen Constantine's boys looked a pale shadow of
the team that came back brilliantly to beat Turkmenistan. The
wily Chinese also closely marked the two Indian strikers
Baichung Bhutia and Abishek Yadav.
Just as in the earlier matches, the below par display in
the first 45 minutes proved to be India's undoing and both the
goals the conceded came during this period.
After taking a little while to settle down, China took
the lead in the 16th minute when Yu Tyu converted a penalty.
Just as the match was heading towards half-time, India had a good chance to restore parity, with Bhutia finding S Venkatesh inside the rival box. But Venkatesh's powerful shot, angled towards the far post, was brilliantly saved by the Chinese 'keeper.
The counter attack which followed took the ball into the
Indian area and the Indian defenders, anticipating the half-time whistle, were caught napping by Yu Tyu who hammered home China's second goal, giving no chance to Indian custodian Rajat
Ghosh Dastidar.
The Indians appeared more purposeful in the first session and managed to keep the
fancied Chinese on tenterhooks with some imaginative moves down the flanks. Howvere, it was the Chinese who drew first
blood. The first goal came off a penalty and Tyu just placed the
ball to the left of a diving Rajat Ghosh Dasdidar.
The penalty was awarded after defender Sameer Naiak
tripped Tyu inside the box. The referee had no hesitation in
pointing to the dreaded spot, depsite mild protests from the
Indians.
Despite trailing by a goal, the Indians played an
attacking game and came close to the Chinese goalmouth on a
few occasions but without much luck.
The nimble-footed Tyu consolidated the position for his
team at the stroke of interval as he slammed in from close
following a goalmouth melee giving no chance at all to
custodian Ghosh Dasdidar.
The Chinese enjoyed territorial advanatge in the second
session but could not increase their margin as the Indians,
knowing the importance of losing by a narrow margin to keep alive their hopes of making the quarter-finals, tightened their
defence and did reasoanly well to keep their rivals on a tight
leash.
The Indians got a few gilt-edged opportunites during the
contest but poor finishing prevented them from scoring the
goal.
With star striker Baichung Bhutia tightly marked right
through the game, the Indian forward line did not look very
menacing as neither Bijen Singh nor Abhishek Yadav could
penetrate the defence.
India coach Stephen Constantine, however, was satisfied
with his team's performance.
"We played quite well and we could match them (China) in their game. The Chinese team is not so
matured," he said.
Constanine, who took over the reins of the team recently
to prepare for the Asian Games, said the penalty
awarded by the Iranian referee in the 16th minute was not fair
and the first goal which resulted from it gave China the
advantage.
According to Constantine the turning point of the match
was the second goal conceded by India during the first half
injury time.
"Had we not conceded the second goal at the stroke of
half-time we could have drawn or even won the match," he added.