My Verdict – Nepal’s performance in SAFF 2013

Once again our most anticipated occasion to triumph silverware has been drenched away. We came close enough but yet couldn’t succeed and stay in race to reach the final. It’s gone now which has given us a margin to learn and move ahead with positive aspiration.

THE GOOD-We were arguably the best when it comes to defending and stop opponent from scoring.3 goals conceded in 4 matches and all of them coming from our mistakes showed it was a hard job for opponent to score. Our strikers scoring goals showed yes we can score and it was not the same old story.All of our strikers Anil Gurung,Bharat Khawas,Jumanu Rai and Bimal Gharti Magar did their job and had best of their performances but we certainly lacked depth and creativity in our midfield. Jagjeet wasn’t fully fit cause of the injury in international friendly and Bhola had a tremendous tournament whereas Raju Tamang was off the mark.

THE BAD-Our tactical approach and reading the progression of game was very weak indeed. For instance let’s look at our game with Afghanistan –Afghan had an early lead and it was enough to stop us. They switched their formation on times and kept on frustrating our attacks. On the last quarter of the game we should have sent a midfielder instead of striker so that we could hold the ball possession. We repeated the same mistakes we did with Pakistan playing long passes and air ball where opponent found it too easy to clear. We weren’t able to make the most of the best chance. Rohit Chand wasn’t able to score in his first spot kick which had kept him on pressure for sure. On this circumstance we could have switched to other player for the spot kick .Doesn’t this mean we didn’t have enough game plan and make right conclusion at stressed condition. This also shows players should have more exposure to matches so that they can tackle and cope on intense situation.

Rating Team Performance

BANGLADESH: BELOW AVERAGE

PAKISTAN: AVERAGE

INDIA: THE BEST

AFGHANISTAN: AVERAGE

Honestly I wasn’t expecting such improvement from our side nevertheless we played some good football at times which even opponent praised for. We have been able to raise our bar from previous edition yet a long way to go.

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Suman Nepal writes for Givemegoal.com in many occasions. You can write down your view and send us to [email protected]. Be sure your articles are more than 250 words in count.