India hit a new low with their “humiliating” loss to tiny Guam in World Cup qualifying, the country’s media said yesterday.
India, once hailed the sleeping giants of soccer by FIFA president Sepp Blatter, were outclassed by the Pacific island minnows on Tuesday night.
The 2-1 defeat was made even more embarrassing as India, with a population of 1.25 billion compared with Guam’s 160,000, are 33 places above Guam Matao (No. 174) in the FIFA world rankings.
“HUMILIATION” screamed the Mail Today tabloid, which said the defeat was the latest in a string of poor performances.
“There is a point after which the word embarrassing does not do justice while describing repeated debacles,” the newspaper said in its back page article.
Other media were similarly scathing of the performance in which Sunil Chhetri, with almost the last kick of the game, scored a consolation goal for the more experienced India side.
“In Pacific, Indian football sinks to new low,” a Hindustan Times headline said, while the Indian Express went with “Speck-tackle: Tiny Guam slay India.”
The Hindustan Times published a list of other sorry defeats suffered by India’s soccer team, who have long struggled for attention, and players, in the cricket-obsessed country.
“India have been in a free fall for a while now with the last away win in an Asian or World qualifier coming in 2001,” the paper said, referring to defeats by minnows the Maldives, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Fiji in recent years.
India coach Stephen Constantine also criticized his players, saying they lacked “football intelligence in key moments of the game.”
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