The India NT squad is currently in the Asian Championships Group 2,which can be labelled the group of death considering our adversaries are all ranked in the top 10 in Asia-Oceania.
Australia, managed by Mr Legs is the top ranked team in the world. Macau managed by one of the many good Chinese managers Chéngzi, is ranked 20th in the world. Korea DPR currently ranked 34 has been rolling with bullseye at the helm.

Our first match against Australia showed the huge gap between the Indian and the top NTs in the world. The Aussie juggernaut scored 5 goals while the Indian eleven was chasing its own tail. Seems to mirror the real life Indian Team does it not? The Oz strikers
Cook(2), Scott(1) and Pup(2) all managed to find the back of the net. Player of the match, Joshua Baxter made something happen everytime he touched the ball and recorded 3 assists.

The second match played today (Dec 10,2013) saw India squaring off against Macau. Both teams, coming of an R1 loss had their backs to the wall. India edged forward in the 9th minute when Ricardo Lu received the corner from Vinnie Anand and blasted it into the net.Chung Guao with 2 goals in 5 minutes put Macau ahead. Coming back from half-time India scored off another corner -Chidambaran scored the equalizer in the 53rd minute. In the 61st minuted Neeraj Chandrasekhar put India ahead resulting in chants of Chandu from the sparse Indian supporters in attendance. The small Indian contingent had their hearts in their mouths when they saw shots by Xun and Lao sail wide . And then a goal in the 88th minute off a Corner(Joe Cramer) sealed the win. A gritty effort has buoyed the spirits for the match against Korea DPR who just need a Tie to advance to the knockout stages. bullseye has been excellent with his strategical moves managing an already good side. The Indian team will have to play out of their skins if they are to avoid a defeat.

India faced Korea DPR in the 3rd league game. Both teams had a lot riding on this winner-take-all contest. The indian team came out of the gate guns-a blazing with Chandrasekhar trying to find the back of the net as early as the 2nd minute. The missed goal and the ensuing botched corner pretty much set the tone for the rest of the match.
The defenders seemed to be doing their part till the 7th minute, when Ri scored an excellent goal. The match that ensued was a story of misses and almosts for India.
The fate was sealed when Yang battling a serious injury managed to score a goal to put Korea DPR up 3-0.
Arun Ghosh said, "Our defenders did not do its job. We missed our assignments. We cannot let our opponents score thrice and hope to compete.We need to go back to our drawing boards."
Both India and Korea DPR had similar stats in all categories except the one that mattered goals scored. With that loss the Indian Team crashed out of the season 5 Asian Championships.

It is the NT selection Week again. what does that mean? You get to select the best players in the country.
Keeping with the goals set during the election campaign I have selected a preliminary squad, which is a mixture of talent and experience.

Managers are welcome to weigh in on the selection. Tomorrow 5:00 IST is when the teams get locked in. Till then I ll be trying to decide if Neeraj Kamath(player-25626 ) or Sushant Vipperla(player-31627) should be picked ahead of Prakash Gadde? Neeraj chandan is another player whose fate hangs in the balance. Should Jos Menezes(player-298573) be picked in his stead? Or Pawan Sarwate(player-218755) who plays for FC Swan (India) maybe?
Among the defenders it can be argued the Ritwik Ramadhin's spot should go to FC Yamunanagar's Jiten Sridharan(player-31526) or Prakash Susarla(player-352735).

Those are the ones that I m still mulling over. If any manager feels their player has been overlooked send me an in-game message or post your player here. But remember if it isnot by 5 am Dec 18,2013, forever hold your peace....

Note: forever is 11 RS weeks

In the WC Qualifications (Asia) group stages India are in the same group as RockingSoccer powerhouse Australia along with fast improving NTs like Malaysia,Palestine,Maldives and Laos. Being in the only group with 6 teams does reduce our probability of moving to the next round.
After the first round of matches, Australia still look like the team to beat not just in the qualifications but also the world cup. In our first game against Maldives, we conceded 3 goals before Maldives lost their GK to a freak injury and then Anant Maya showed his class by scoring a a brace of goals to get India a 6-3 victory.

Preview: In the next round on sunday, we face the MAlaysian NT,which on paper boast of better players at skill positions. Their first round qualification game saw them square up against Palestine and they dominated every aspect of the game including the scoreline. The star of the show was Choochai Darawan who orchestrated an excellent game and won the man of the match honours.
But paper contests do not win matches which is why we play them.
Don the Tricolor and turn up to support the next round of the qualification matches at 16:17 IST on saturday december 21

http://rockingsoccer.com/en/soccer/lineup/match-1236410

Update time
So we have played Malaysia, Laos and Palestine since the first freak win.

Against Malaysia the defence played really well. We had a slight edge in ball possession and Vinnie Anand and Syamala made deep forays into the Malaysian half and set our forwards up. The Malaysia n defense held its own and it was our expertise with set pieces that finally got us the goals needed for a win. Against Laos, finally our forwards made use of the opportunities and Chandrasekhar and Tanu scored to help secure a win. The game against Palestine was on even keel till Elbasuny was sent off after which India inched forward for the win.

On January 18th we go up against Australia and we will be lucky not to get pummeled against them. Joshua BAxter and Wayne Elderkin have made opponent defenses look mediocre and John Scott and Travis Cook have found the back of the net often, If anyone has any strategy about how to approach this match, please send me an in game message with your ideas.
The match can be viewed on Saturday, january 18 at 15:58 IST
http://rockingsoccer.com/en/soccer/info/match-1236417/fixture

India v Australia match in review
India hosted Australia at the Bombay FC stadium - An 80000 strog crowd was in attendance. Australia started strongly and maintained defensive discipline to keep Indian Forwards in check. Duane Pup and John Scott scored early and by the fifteenth minute India were behind the 8 -ball trailing by 2 goals. Vinnie Anand seemed to be the only Indian player who could go toe-to-toe with the Aussies.
And India lost it 2-4

For anyone still following the world Cup qualification efforts,we got murdered in the playoffs against Macau. The fact that we have a lower-talent pool was highlighted in the first leg when we lost 5-2. The second leg was a mere formality.
Current team state:
Our forwards are at least a season away from where the current top Forwards in the top Asian NTs are. We do not have depth at the keeper position - and the keepers who play will struggle to get selected even in the first XI of the Indian League(div1) teams. I have a couple of keepers in mind for the future but these keepers will not get in the preliminary squad at least for a season or two.

Since we are out of the cup, its time to ring out the old and ring in the new at least temporarily. I plan to get some of the youth players some early experience before its time to make the selection again at the end of the season. Of course since they have been picked up in the preliminary squad, I can not play favorites now can I ? X-)