Nepal eyes South Asian Football Championship

Once again  my conversation topic is football.  Right now   the national team’s three nation   tour    is   front and center.  The friendlies    were undertaken   to   prepare   the team for the   all important upcoming South Asian Football Federation   Championship in New Delhi, India.

The national squad rounded off the trip with a solitary victory over Cambodia (1-0).Other than that it was another listless performance by our boys. They went down to Philippines 0-4 and 0-2 to Malaysia U-23.  Unfortunately   the last   leg   of   the   tour   was cancelled due to   flooding situation in Thailand.

This is the first time in a very long spell All Nepal Football Association (ANFA)     embraced   a tournament   wholeheartedly    in terms of preparations.  I cannot recall the national teams    ever take    a   tour of this magnitude in the` last sixteen years prior to this.

Probably    the tour was possible   largely on   Coach Roberts’ insistence.  Whatever   the circumstances, ANFA   sanctioned   it.  For that I have to laud   them   for   displaying   some   degree of sanity finally.

Had only ANFA   consistently resorted   to   preparation of this nature   in the past, perhaps, the overall performances of the national team would have looked   fairly   reasonable. The matter of fact is that most of the time   the   football   body   has   turned a blind eye when it comes to appropriate, effective and adequate training.

Quality friendly matches are imperative   to   assess and   evaluate the team,   tune up players, experiment various strategies,   work   on grey areas and so forth.  

Even more important is the training aspect   because   it   constantly deals with   issues like, physical and mental   fitness, technical   and tactical improvement and team build up.

In   addition the coaching staff’s   ability, efficiency and   professionalism, coupled with football association’s support are crucial to make the endeavor a success.

The national   team    has   virtually failed to find its groove, which is   a huge disappointment.  For a   die hard   fan like me   it is inconceivable that we   have gone sans a major accomplishment for more than a decade.

Apart from our failure   to   find a winning combination, we have not been able to reinvent and motivate ourselves as well.  Gone are the days when we   were a force to reckon with in South Asia. Such    ragged has been our   showing   in recent years that today we have almost sunk into oblivion.  

Our last success was at the 1993 South Asian Federation Games in Bangladesh.  In a stunning upset we prevailed over India to win the gold, and   I had the privilege then   to witness the final. Since then   we have     been in a   downhill   spiral especially    in terms of result.

We have   been unable to keep   up   with the changing   pace   of   international football, and as a result the endless phase of struggle and desperation continues for us.The just concluded ASEAN   tour is a clear indication that   we   still have a lot of hard work left to be done.  

Over all, we   were   a mediocre   team   and   failed to make an impression.  Unless we take   our performance to the next level   the SAFF Championship might   turn out to be another debacle for us.     

There   is   nothing   heartening about the team’s   performance. I   reckon   Coach Roberts feels the same way, and   he is understandably   crestfallen   the way the   tour panned out.

Obviously, the coach is under pressure to deliver results. Whether he succeeds or fails is to be seen yet. One thing is crystal clear he has one great big huge stupendous challenge on hand.