Portugal Trip of India Football Team - 2008 : Indian Football Capital's News :kolkatafootball.com

India won 4 - 0 in last match at Portugal

13.07.2008:Today’s game versus Gouveia XI was Team India’s best performance in this tour.No questions on a dominant 4 - 0 win.
The 1st half ended with 1 - 0 but that wasn’t showing Team India’s dominance. Abhishek Yadav scored one but had 2 more great opportunities. Sunil Chetri was again determined to impress. Ando so he did with an excellent performance, including the assistance for Abhishek’s goal as well as a nice volley that hit the crossbar.
Gouveia’s coach quickly understood that the chances to clinch the 1st Gouveia Cup were little. In the second half the Portuguese side started with a stronger pace, but soon they were neutralized by Sushil Kumar Singh’s two goals (3 - 0) that ended any doubts about the outcome of this match.
To end the tour on a high note Tarif Ahmed scored again (4 - 0 ), making him the best scorer of this tour with a total of 3 goals.For the 2nd year in a row Team India visited Portugal and the improvements are obvious.
Coach Houghton’s teachings are producing results and some players are upgrading by the game.Sunil Chetri confirmed the good impression left here last year and justified the interest of Portuguese II League club Estoril Praia that watched him on these last 2 games.
He may be following Baichung Bhutia heritage and come to Europe soon. Climax and Tarif were also in a high note. Climax thanks to his elegance and skills, was always an important player for the team. Tarif was also important thanks to his 3 goals.
Subrata confirmed that he is a great GK and is also one that may have opportunities in Europe. Overall, Portuguese football people that followed this 2nd tour are unanimous to consider Team India players as talented and capable of further development as long as they move to more competitive environments.
Team India will always be welcome to Portugal and Spunp will immediately start working on next year’s tour.

India beat Gafanha 3 - 2

11.07.2008:GD Gafanha provided an excellent test for Team India. The final result 3-2 shows how hard it was for Team India to beat GD Gafanha, one of the best sides in the Aveiro region.
In the first half Singh and Chetri, thanks to a penalty kick, reach a comfortable 2-0 win, but in the second half the Portuguese side was aggressive enough to fight back and thanks to Cotrim and Gilmar made it 2-2 with 15 minutes to go.
But it wouldn't be the day that Team India would lose its 1st game in Portuguese soil. Tariff was decisive and scored 3-2 to give Bob Houghton's boys a deserved win.
The spirit showed by Team India to take that final goal and win the game, shows Houghton's ability to motivate his players.
Saturday will see Team India play its final game in this Portugal tour 2008.

India will face Ist Divn Team Gafanha on 10th July

09.07.2008:Team India's next oponent during the Portugal training camp will be GD Gafanha. This club from Gafanha da Nazare in the beautiful region of Aveiro, currently plays in the 1st Division of AF Aveiro League.
The game will take place at Estadio da Gafanha at 19:00 (local time) on Thursday 10 July.
This will be Baichung Bhutia final game in this tour, as he leaves to Germany the following morning to attend Goal4Africa match at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany.

India Beat Gouveia XI of Portugal 2 - 0

05.07.2008:India National team had yesterday (Sat July 5th) another successful journey in Portugal, totalling now 5 unbeaten games since they played their 1st game in Portugal last year.
Gouveia Select was beaten 0 - 2 by the Indian squad with 1 goal in each half.
India was in a dominant form in the first half, opening the score through Climax Lawrence at the 31st minute (1 - 0). Climax was in fact the best player in the match with a very strong showing in the first 45 minutes. Sunil almost got the reward for his work when a goal was called offside at the 42nd minute . During first half Mahesh Gawli was also in a good form when he was able to neutralize Gouveia’s star Joao Pereira.

Subrata Pal with a couple of nice saves kept the score until half time.
On second half, Gouveia started stronger and offered a nice challenge for the result but Tarif Ahmed’s 85th minute goal ( 2 - 0) ended the uncertainty about the outcome of this nice match.

Clifford Miranda has a couple of good runs thru the left side, generating some good opportunities that didn’t materialize.
Afterwards the National Team was greeted at Gouveia City Hall by the city’s Mayor and India Ambassador to Portugal.

India's First Match on 5th July in Portugal

04.07.2008: After last year successful tour to the westernmost country of mainland Europe, India’s finest, arrived in Lisbon for a 12 day training camp, that will see them play 3 friendly games.
Despite the long trip the mood was positive and the group was excited to be back to Cristiano Ronaldo’s country.
Some of the players didn’t hide their ambition to get an opportunity to play in Portugal in the near future.
The training camp will be divided in two.
First phase in the mountain city of Gouveia, until the 6th, with the first game taking place on Sunday 5th against Gouveia Select, a team composed by the best players in that region.
After the game, Gouveia city Mayor will host a dinner to celebrate the presence of India National Team in his city. This dinner will have the presence of India’s Ambassador to Portugal.
The trip to Portugal is the precursor to the big challenge, which will be the AFC Challenge Cup in Hyderabad later this month

Portugal Training Trip of Sr.India Football Team - 2008

Goalkeepers: Subrata Paul, Arindam Bhattacharya, Subhashish Roy Chowdhary
Defenders : Govin Mojranginem, Denzil Franco, Surkumar Singh, Mahesh Gawli, Gouramangi Singh, Deepak Mondal, Anwar, Syed Rahim Nabi and Sameer Naik.
Midfielders : Baldeep Singh (Jr), Steven Dias, Climax Lawrence, N.P. Pradeep, Clifford Miranda, Bungo Singh, Ajayan Nair, Mehrajuddin Wadoo and Renedy Singh
Forwards : Baichung Bhutia, Sunil Chhetri, Manjit Singh, Abhishek Yadav, Sushil Singh and Tarif Ahmed
Chief Coach : Bob D Houghton