Subrata Paul vs ASIA (VIDEO)

This is a video of Subrata Paul in the AFC Asian Cup 2011.

Rory Delap's throw in vs Raju Gaikwad's Throw.(VIDEO)

The video all you Indian fans have been waiting for.
Raju Gaikwad's throw in vs the famed Rory Delap throw in!

Raju Gaikwad's incredible throw in (VIDEO POST).

Raju Gaikwad's long throw has often been one of India's most dangerous attac king weapons in recent times. Here it is on video.
P.S. This one is a little short, probably cause the ball slipped out of his hand.

Interview with Sunil Chhetri (VIDEO POST)

The Indian team arrived at the Piarco International Airport at 8:20 on Thursday morning (Local Time) to face off against the Trinidad and Tobago national team on Sunday evening.

The T&T Soca Warriors camera team caught up with Sunil Chhetri after an evening training session.

Chinese football : Jose Antonio Camacho appointed new China boss.

Ex-Real Madrid and Spain coach Jose Antonio Camacho took over China's national team on Sunday morning, replacing 45 year old Gao Hongbo whose last match in charge was a 1-0 win over Jamaica.

Being appointed for little over a day, he has his eyes set on the FIFA World Cup 2014 whch is to be held in Brasil.
"I became accustomed to pressure when I started playing for Real Madrid at 17. I will meet enormous expectations from Chinese fans and the Chinese society after taking over the team. Pressure to me is something beautiful. For me and my crew, our short-term goal is to lead China to qualify for the World Cup, but this is a very complicated mission," he said at a press conference.

His first game will be on the 2nd of September when China face Singapore in its first 3rd round qualifying game. China have been drawn in Group A alongside Jordan, Iraq and Singapore.

He further added that he believes the team has great potential, "I believe China is a team with discipline and execution abilities. Because of which, China is able to make greater achievements."

However, unlike his predecessors Camacho isnt expected to provide instant results, which in the football world is very difficult to do.
"Appointing Camacho is part of our long term revival plan," said Yu Hongchen, vice director ofthe Chinese Soccer Administrative Center. "The qualifying stage of 2014 World Cup is just atemporary task for him. Even if the task is failed, he will not lose the job."

Camacho and his team will receive more than USD$6.26 million a year and a contract extension if Chinese football improves in three years.

Many Chinese were opposed to the idea of having a foreign coach at the helm of affairs, however Chinese tycoon Wang Jianlin called for support of the new coach."If you are a real Chinese, a real Chinese soccer fan, please support Camacho," said Wang,chairman of Chinese real estate company Dalian Wanda.

Dalian Wanda has promised to inject 500million yuan ($77.3 million) over three years to boost Chinese soccer, including inviting a world-class coach to help the national program.

A Delhi boy's introduction and observations on Indian football. P1

I am a "Dilli ka Ladka", which basically means that every weekend, i can be found in one of the NCR's various Hookah bars watching either cricket or the Barclays Premier league. It also means that Indian Football is just about as interesting as Business Studies.

Over time, i started watching Indian Football, not because i was a crazy fan of it, but because i was bored and had nothing else to do. Over time, i did become a crazy fan of it, and even earned the nickname, "Chhetri" for my non stop attempts to copy Chhetri's back heel goal against Vietnam, on the field and off it.

When India was playing the AFC Challenge Cup in 2008, was when i actually started paying attention to football in India. That tournament was being played at the Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad. What i saw was a stadium that looked excellent, until it started raining. Then things started to get bad, and by bad i mean that they were literally playing in what looked like what a park becomes on Holi.



Then, when the teams, the AFC and the AIFF had had enough, they shifted the final to the Ambedkar Stadium in Delhi. I decided to go and watch the game and what i saw surprised me completely. A jam packed stadium full of crazy fans chanting INDIA!INDIA!. This came as a stark contrast to what i had seen during the games in Hyderabad, which was a maximum of 1000 people in a massive looking stadium. Chhetri scored a hattrick in that game and we were just amazed as to how we could beat the Tajiks by 4 goals to 1 when we were the team being dubbed as underdogs! We had qualified for the Asian Cup!



Then after a lull of about a year, my football coach and other guys at practice started getting excited about something and thats when i found out that the Nehru Cup was going on. The first game i saw at the Ambedkar was Syria against some other team and at half time, there were not more than a hundred people in the stadium. I said to myself, "ye mein kahan aa gaya." I then went to and India Krygystan game, where there were many more guys like me. Mostly, school and college guys with a few babu type guys joining in at half time(probably after work). India won that game quite easily and i decided not attend the rest of the games but the final, which turned out to be a cracker.

It was India vs Syria, and the pre-match comments made by the latter's gaffer were basically that India were a terrible side and they could beat us with 7 men, if only he knew of the events about to unfold! I reached the stadium well in time at 5:30pm( for a 6:3 kick-off) thinking that,"abhi toh koi nahin aaya hoga!" Did i realise how i was wrong. There was a line about a mile long. The tickets probably sold out too, as at 6pm the ticket booth(more of a tiny window) was closed. That witnessed the rise of the great Indian entrepreneurial spirit. Blackies made a killing in the parking lot that night, as fans were willing to pay about triple the price of the ticket. While standing in line, i could hear massive cheers from inside the stadium,it even started raining lightly and then the most unexpected thing happened. There was a buzz circulating that people had started to climb the wall into the the Kotla next door. When i finally got to my seat(or my step), it turned out to be true! You could actually see a few hundred people inside the Ferozshah Kotla, and by half time more had started going in! The match was fantastic. Renedy scored a wonderful free-kick and at the end of regulation time, it was 1-1. Then came the penalties! Mehraj missed one, but other than that i think everybody scored. Subrata Paul pulled off some superb saves, and with the tournament winning save, the crowd went crazy. Chants of Subrata! Subrata! and India! India! People were jumping up and down, hugging each other and just going mad. Even Indian Filmstar Salman Khan who was in the stands for this particular game seemed overjoyed, forget him..even his bodyguards were somehow resisting the urge to jump and sing like everyone else i the stadium. Subrata Paul made his mark in history that day and was quite rightly judged the best goalkeeper in the entire tournament.



Following this game i started to think of the massive potential that football has in our country. The fans, who come to support our team in large numbers for every game, even when the game is held in a venue that is quite disconnected from the entire city, despite being in the middle of it. Our goalkeeper, playing in India has become such a man to watch. Playing in a class of his own, what he could have become if playing in some bigger and better league. The enormous presence of our captain(ex- now), in the field with 3-4 people marking him for all free kicks and 2 people trying to tackle him whenever he goes on one of those jaw dropping runs of his. I look back and think, if only they had better luck. Alas, it seems as if they were born to be wasted.

Indian team set to leave for the +ONE Caribbean Tour. Team news, and fixtures.

The Indian Team are all set to leave for their "+One Caribbean India Tour" later today. The team are set to board their flight today at 8:30 PM from Kolkatta to London.

In London, they will be transported from Heathrow to Gatwick Airport from where they will fly to the Caribbeans. "Indian team will leave tomorrow and they will land in Heathrow from where they will go to Gatwick to catch a flight to Barbados. Indian High Commission will oversee the security arrangements there in view of the prevailing situation," AIFF Vice-President Subrata Dutta told reporters.

The team and support staff for the tour :

Goalkeepers: Subrata Pal, Karanjit Singh, Laxmikant Kattimani.

Defenders: Valeriano Rebello, Raju Gaikwad, Gourmangi Singh, Mahesh Gawli, Rowilson Rodrigues, Debabrata Roy, Robert Lalthalmuana, Samir Naik.

Midfielfders: Climax Lawrence, Steven Dias, Peter Carvalho, Clifford Miranda, Lalrindika Ralte, Rocus Lamare, Mehtab Hosain, Rahim Nabi.

Forwards: Sunil Chhetri, Jeje Lalpeklua, Sushil Singh, S Sabeeth.

Chief Coach: Armando Colaco

Assistant Coach: Savio Medeira.

Goalkeeping Coach: Marcus Pacheco.

Physical Trainer: Suresh Babu.

Doctor: Sandeep Kumar.

Physio: Vishnu Nair.

Masseur: Liaqat Ali.

Team Manager: Mandhar Tamhane.

India is set to face St. Kitts & Nevis(Rank 118) on the 17th of August, Trinidad & Tobago(Rank 88) on the 21st of August, Guyana(Rank 116) on the 24th of August and St. Vincent & the Grenadines(Rank 139) on the 26th of August.

India have looked quite impressive against their higher ranked Asian opponents, but now it will be interesting to see them against teams from the CONCACAF regions.

Korea Republic names squad for Japan friendly.

Korea Republic coach Cho Kwang-Rae has named his squad for the friendly against Japan in Sapporo on the 10th of August.

This is the last warm up game for both teams before the start of the all important 2014 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in January.


Park Chu-Young(above picture) makes a comeback after being out of the Asian Cup earlier this year due to an injury.
Korea Republic squad:

Goalkeepers: Jung Sung-Ryeong (Suwon) Kim Jin-Hyun (Cerezo Osaka, Japan) Kim Young-Kwang (Ulsan)

Defenders: Park Chu-Ho (Basel, Switzerland) Kwak Tae-Hwi, Lee Jae-Sung (both Ulsan) Kim Yong-Kwon (Omiya, Japan) Park Won-Jae (Jeonbuk) Lee Jung-Soo (Al Sadd, Qatar) Jo Yeong-Chol (Albirex, Japan) Cha Du-Ri (Celtic, Scotland)

Midfielders: Lee Yong-Rae (Suwon) Kim Bo-Kyong (Cerezo, Japan) Kim Jung-Woo (Sangju) Koo Ja-Cheol (Wolfsburg, Germany) Ki Sung-Yong (Celtic, Scotland) Lee Chung-Yong (Bolton, England) Yoon Bitgaram (Gyeongnam) Nam Tae-Hee (Valenciennes, France)

Forwards: Ji Dong-Won, (Sunderland, England) Lee Keun-Ho (Gamba, Japan) Park Chu-Young (Monaco, France) Son Heung-Min (Hamburg, Germany) Kim Shin-Wook (Ulsan).

Serie A: Javier Pastore moves to Paris Saint-Germain for 43 million Euros

Paris Saint-Germain have signed Argentine playmaker Javier Pastore from Palermo for 43 million euros, Italian news agency ANSA reported on today.

“As of midnight, Pastore’s sale to Paris Saint-Germain is practically official for €43m. It was well known that the clubs were in advanced negotiations, although Chelsea were still in the frame up until last night. As of Friday evening, at around midnight, we concluded the negotiation process. Pastore’s sale to PSG is practically official for €43m. I believe that, along with Sergio Aguero, Pastore is the king of this transfer market session.” Palermo president Maurizio Zamparini told the press.

The 22 year old played 35 matches for Palermo last season, scoring a total of 11 goals.

Arsene Wenger earlier dubbed PSG “the Manchester City of France” and that, like City, qualification for the Champions League was a “minimum” requirement. PSG have embarked on a summer spending spree since the Qatar Investment Authority bought a controlling stake in the club a few months back, with the other notable signings being Mohamed Sissoko and Salvatore Sirigu.