Houghton’s boys face unknown rivals in Namibia

NEW DELHI - India have a tough task of facing unknown rivals in Nambia in their third international football friendly of the month here Wednesday at the Ambedkar Stadium.

India lost 0-1 to Thailand in Bangkok and in the return leg lost 1-2 here last week. In their last two matches, India were successful in getting the ball in the rival half for most part but they clearly lacked a finisher.

In the last match, it was only after the 70th minute when Bhaichung Bhutia came on as a substitute that the Indian team started creating some goal bound moves.

Against 115th ranked Namibia, India, ranked 138th in the FIFA rankings, will have a tough time if they don’t get their act right. For Bob Houghton’s boys it will be a chance to salvage some pride after two consecutive losses against Thailand.

Houghton said Tuesday on the eve of the match that he will replace forward Mohammad Rafi, who played his second international match last week, with Abhishek Yadav.

“Abhishek and Chhetri will start. Abhishek has played well in Portugal and I have never seen him in better form as he is now,” Houghton said.

Lack of experience clearly reflected on Rafi’s game last week and Houghton was forced to replace him in the 70th minute Bhutia.

Houghton said that against Namibia, Bhutia will also come in but in the later stages of the game.

“I want Bhutia to reach his peak by November when we shift our base to Dubai for training,” said Houghton

Against Thailand, the midfield looked disoriented and with Renedy Singh still recovering from a hamstring injury, Clifford Miranda will start as left winger and Anthony Pereira will move to right flank.

Defence is also a worry for Houghton as central defender Anwar Ali and wing-back Surkumar Singh have been ruled out due to injuries.

Houghton is planning to play Syed Rahim Nabi in one of the wide positions to give his team more attacking options.

On unknown opposition Namibia, Houghton said: “I don’t have much idea about Namibia. In situations when you play unknown oppositions the best thing is not to try too much and stick to our original style of play.”

Namibia are without seven first team players for the match, but their Belgian coach Tom Saintfiet sounded confident that his boys will be tough to beat in the match. September 15 is not a FIFA match day, and the foreign-based players didn’t get a clearance from their respective clubs for their national duty.

“We have left out three players who play in South African league, one is playing in Angola and three are in Europe. They are not with us here. But we are looking forward to Wednesday’s match. India have qualified for AFC Asian Cup, so it will be a tough match,” Saintfiet said.

Saintfiet said that his team was looking for match practice as most of the squad have not played for four months since their domestic league have been postponed.

“We don’t have much match practice as most of the players have not played after the league had a break four months ago. So we are happy to have come here and play an international friendly,” said the Belgian after his side’s training session here.

Unlike India, Namibia’s have played three international matches so far this year.

In two friendlies in March, they drew with South Africa 1-1, and held Bosnia and Herzegovina to a goalless draw and lost 1-3 to Gambia in the qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations earlier this month.