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Kathmandu,Tuesday February 01, 2000 Magh 18th, 2056.
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‘ANFA Cup lived up to
expectations’
-By Ash Pradhan
KATHMANDU, Jan 31- After almost two weeks of exciting football, ANFA Coca
Cola Invitational football tournament has finally come to an end. Straightaway, one thing
is for sure, the tournament did manage to pull a fair number of crowds that was lacking in
much hyped earlier tournaments. Though it is a different fact that the number was far less
than what the officials here expected.
If teams from Bangladesh, Bhutan failed to meet the desired expectation, the
other teams in the fray--two Nepalese sides, Thai team and South Korean University
teams--more or less lived upto the expectation. The Korean side in particular was a cut
above the rest be it technically or physically, something which we are now used to expect
from Korean sides. But having said that the senior Nepalese outfit did give them a scare
or two in the final. In the words of Ganesh Thapa himself, President of All Nepal Football
Association (ANFA), "The final match could have gone either way, it was our bad luck
that we ended up on a losing side otherwise there wasn’t much to choose between the
two sides." President Thapa was probably referring to some early chances that Nepal
missed which could have turned the tide of the match.
Nepalese football coach Stephen Constantine's views also reflect what
President Thapa had to say. "Our boys played better football, it’s just that we
failed to convert the chances while they did," said Constantine. On the other hand,
South Korean Coach Yo Jong Hee had some interesting things to say about Nepalese football.
Admitting that Nepal did play an attractive brand of football in the final, that forced
them to go on the backfoot and play a waiting game, Korean coach made an interesting
remark: "Nepal does play well against better and well organised sides while against
weaker sides it fails to dominate." The Korean coach was referring to Nepal
Red’s performance in the final and against Bhutan respectively.
Hee’s observation looks right to a great extent as Nepal has done pretty
well against teams of repute and vice versa. Just prior to the 8th SAF Games, under the
present coach they had performed creditably agaisnt sides like Uzbekistan and Ghana in the
Bangbandhu Cup in Bangladesh. But when they were expected to win, banking on their two
previous outings, against a side considered weak in the tournament, they ended up on the
losing side.
Hee’s remark more or less tells the same story though Nepal did lose to
a better outfit (at least on paper) this time round.
However, ANFA President Thapa is quick to dismiss any such trends in Nepalese
football. "Against Bhutan the team was slightly over confident, after all they had
hammerred them 8-0 in the 8th SAF Games," said Thapa.
Coming back to the standard of play, though everyone seemed high and dry
about Nepal Red’s showing in the tournament, there was much missing in Nepal
Blue’s performance, the second string youthful side of the country. Apart from boys
like Sukra Tamang upfront and Sameer Nemkul down below, Nepal Blue looked short of ideas
and technique to handle pressure situations. The thing is amply justified by their showing
in the semi-final agaisnt Thailand. Once they conceded the goal against Thailand the side
strangely went off the boil after promising a lot, in the initial stage of the second
half.
From a true supporter of Nepalese football's point of view, it was indeed sad
to note that there’s not much depth in the offing from the top footballers, at least
at the top level. The tournament also witnessed the end of the successful careers of two
stalwarts of Nepalese football--Deepak Amatya and Rajesh Manandhar--both of whom bade
farewell to international football.
Apart from the successful organisation of the
tournament and a jam packed Dashrath Stadium in the final, it was also good to see the
giant scoreboard finally working.
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