Nepal have alway been considered a ‘dark-horse’ of South Asian football , capable of any kind of results--giving a fright to heavyweights in one match and going down meekly against weaker opponents in another. Nepal’s journey in the SAFF Championship—the region’s showpiece event in football —has so far been a bumpy one.
With expectant home crowd rooting for them to the hilt, Nepal have a perfect opportunity to put behind heartbreaks of the past and assert their supremacy in the region. But that also means huge pressure both on Nepal’s national football team and its governing body, Anfa.
Beginning their official SAFF journey in Kathmandu in 1997, Nepal have failed to even reach the final. Eliminated from the group stage in the first edition at Dasharath Stadium, the biggest success achieved by Nepal so far has been reaching the semi-finals twice—in 1999 in Goa and in 2011 in New Delhi.
Nepal have faced the exit door from the group stage on four occasions—in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth editions in Bangladesh (2002), Pakistan (2005), Maldives and Sri Lanka (2008) and again in Bangladesh (2009).
As Nepal have been pooled alongside five time champions India and former champions Bangladesh and Pakistan in the ‘group of death,’ it will certainly be the daunting task for the home team to surpass the group stage when the championship will kick-off on Saturday.
But this should not be the horrendous factor as they have had a successful preparation campaign and are running high on confidence, as per the national coach Jack Stefanowski and skipper Sagar Thapa.
India are certainly the powerhouse of regional football while Bangladesh are also considered stronger than Nepal, boasting player like Ali Ashfak, who was nominated for the Asian POY in 2009. The recent result against Pakistan was also not in the favour of Nepal as they had gone down 1-0 in the friendly last year.
The only consolations Nepal had derived in previous editions were the appraisals from their opponents. This time also, opponents have already begun to highlight the strong possibility of Nepal becoming the champions.
Maldives coach Mohummad Yusuf Kargar had said that Nepal, India and Bangladesh will be their strongest opponents. Best player of the last edition, Indian skipper Sunil Chhetri, also the highest goal scorer, had already confessed that Nepal will be the toughest hurdle in their title defence.
Bangladeshi Dutch coach, Lodebchich De Cyruff have pitted India as the heavyweights to defend their title, proclaiming they face a stern challenge from Nepal, previleged by the support of home fans.
Nepal cannot afford to be bemused with the appraisal coming from every direction this time as they are in different situation than previous years.
Long preparation, home ground and altered reputation from the last edition will definitely put the squad under pressure when they will kick-off the campaign against Bangladesh.
Nepal began their three-week preparation campaign from the first week of August, playing five friendlies against the U-25 team of Kuwait and Bahrain, victorious in four and losing one.
Nepal conceded five goals while score 14 during that tour with Anil Gurung and Bimal Ghartimagar scoring four and three goals respectively. Santosh Shahukhala and Tek Bahadur Budathoki scored two while Jumanu Gurung, Nirajan Khadka and Bijay Gurung scored a goal each.
Nepal’s technical director, Krishna Thapa, believes that the home team have different foregrounds to excel and impress. He hails the team being perfectly fit as never and asserts his claim towards the sharpness of the strikers, who have been scoring goals—the most derailing aspect of Nepal till date.
Highlighting the noteworthy and successful 21-day preparation campaign in Bahrain and Kuwait, Thapa believes that Nepal is well prepared to keep the title home.
The home fans cannot wait!
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