{"id":1466,"date":"2011-12-12T04:57:12","date_gmt":"2011-12-12T04:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/?p=1466"},"modified":"2011-12-12T04:57:12","modified_gmt":"2011-12-12T04:57:12","slug":"india-are-saff-champions-for-the-sixth-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/?p=1466","title":{"rendered":"India are SAFF Champions for the sixth time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>New Delhi:<\/strong> It was a clear Sunday evening with Jawaharlal Nehru  Stadium filled with more than 10,000 cheering their guts out for both  the finalists teams. With a mood set for a perfect final, it did not  turn out to be the way expected. Because as the match progressed, it  unfolded a lot drama including a controversial penalty decision, red  card to Afghanistan goalkeeper, a penalty retake, and then an eventual  score line of 4-0 to help India retain the SAFF Championship 2011. India  who took on the resilient Afghanistan in the finals were shown some  initial resistance but finally prevailed over them to be crowned the  champions for the record sixth time.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the first half of the match, India were dominated by Afghanistan  as they launched continuous attacks on India. Indian defence who got  back the rythm between their defence and midfield in the last  match\u00a0against\u00a0Maldives were caught could not stand upto the character  and looked very confused. \u00a0Had it not been for Karanjit who made some  great saves for India, they would have conceded as much as two goals  within the first half itself.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>India also had few chances to score in the first half, but their  attack lacked conviction and could not do much to put make any early  inroads and put pressure on the much organised Afghanistan team. As the  teams walked into the half time with no goals scored, Afghanistan did  look a much better side and dominated India for majority of the half  time.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After the change of ends, India looked to shift the momentum and  looked to attack straightaway. Six minutes in the second India should  have scored but failed, courtesy a Jeje Lalpekhlua&#8217;s header at an empty  net off a Clifford Miranda&#8217;s pass went over the bar. After that the  match was evenly poised till the fateful 65th minute when Jeje was  brought down by Faisal Safa of Afghanistan within the box. The referee  Sukhbir Singh\u00a0immediately\u00a0pointed towards the spot, which sparked a  vehement protest from the Afghanistan and the situation soared new  heights when their agitated goalkeeper and skipper Hameedullah  Yousufzari pushed the referee. Singh who is from Singapore wasted no  time and gave marching orders to Hameedullah. The match halted for five  minutes as the Afghan goalie created a ruckus in the middle.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After he was pacified by the team and finally pursuaded by his  teammates to leave the ground, Bashir Ahmed came into fill his shoes  replacing Ghulam Hazrat. The\u00a0responsibility\u00a0to take the penalty was  given to Sunil Chhetri and he cleanly slotted the ball in which sent an  enourmous roar across the stadium. But that was short lived as he had to  retake the penalty, because even before he could take the penalty  Indian players barged into the box. He took to his penalty slot again  and it was just a deja vu for everyone as he found the nets again to  send set the atmoshphere in the stadium on fire.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After this whole chaos, the visitors indeed lost all the interest in  the game as commented by their coach after the match and India left no  stone unturned to take advantage on 10 man Afghanistan. In the 80th  minute, Clifford Miranda who had been on roll throughout the tournament  soon joined the party and scored the second goal for India off a  Chettri&#8217;s pass.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A minute later, an unmarked Jeje scored off a pass from his best  buddy Chettri to take an unassailable 3-0 lead. The goal however saw  Chettri getting injured and had to be taken out of the field on  a\u00a0stretcher. The result already decided, Sushil Singh was sent into  replace Chettri and partner Jeje. Singh who had been non existent  throughout the tournament also took full advantage of the depleted  Afghan side and scored the fourth goal of the match with a powerful  right footer from 20 yards to seal their fate.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Indian Coach Savio Madeira was delighted and praised his boys for the  win. &#8221; The boys played really well. Technically speaking we were the  only team which came into the tournament without any training due to the  domestic I-League. I am proud of the boys and really appreciate the way  they played,&#8221; said Savio.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Afghanistan&#8217;s coach Yusuf Kargar admitted that India played good, but  feels that the penalty decision was a wrong one. &#8221; The penalty should  not have been given. It killed our morale and the team lost all interest  in the game,&#8221; said Kargar.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Samikshan Dutta Choudhury<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Indian Sports News<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>New Delhi:<\/strong> It was a clear Sunday evening with Jawaharlal Nehru  Stadium filled with more than 10,000 cheering their guts out for both  the finalists teams. With a mood set for a perfect final, it did not  turn out to be the way expected. Because as the match progressed, it  unfolded a lot drama including a controversial penalty decision, red  card to Afghanistan goalkeeper, a penalty retake, and then an eventual  score line of 4-0 to help India retain the SAFF Championship 2011. India  who took on the resilient Afghanistan in the finals were shown some  initial resistance but finally prevailed over them to be crowned the  champions for the record sixth time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-football-football"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>India are SAFF Champions for the sixth time - IndianSportsNews.com - Latest Updated Sports News &amp; Sports Blogs of Cricket, Hockey, Golf, Football, Tennis &amp; Other Sports<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/?p=1466\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"India are SAFF Champions for the sixth time - IndianSportsNews.com - Latest Updated Sports News &amp; Sports Blogs of Cricket, Hockey, Golf, Football, Tennis &amp; Other Sports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New Delhi: It was a clear Sunday evening with Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium filled with more than 10,000 cheering their guts out for both the finalists teams. With a mood set for a perfect final, it did not turn out to be the way expected. Because as the match progressed, it unfolded a lot drama including a controversial penalty decision, red card to Afghanistan goalkeeper, a penalty retake, and then an eventual score line of 4-0 to help India retain the SAFF Championship 2011. 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