India U-23 beat Jiangsu Sainty

The Asian Games bound India U-23 National Team started their China Exposure Tour on a high with a convincing 3-0 win over Chinese Super League side Jiangsu Sainty at the Century Park in Shanghai on Friday (August 29, 2014).

Sunil Chhetri, Robin Singh and substitute Alwyn George were on target either side of halftime for the men in blue who prior to this tour drew a Friendly Series against Pakistan 1-1.

One time runners up Jiangsu are currently placed seventh in the Chinese Super League table having garnered 31 points from 21 matches so far. They fielded their second string side in this match.

India started the match brightly winning three corners in the space of the first twenty minutes. But all three takes from Dempo’s Mandar Rao Desai failed to cause enough flutters in opposition ranks.

But that was not to be so for long. A free kick from 25 yards was craftily swerved in at the far post by Sunil with the match only 28 minutes old. Soon after the Captain had another glorious chance to double his lead from the penalty spot after Robin was brought down inside the 18-yard box. But the AIFF Player of the Year's take was saved by keeper.

In between Robin couldn’t quite pull the trigger from a one on one situation also failing to keep the ball on target on the rebound. But the tall Bengaluru FC No 9 made amends on the other side of the half when he leaped highest to powerfully head the ball into the back of the net from Mandar’s perfectly weighed left-wing cross.

In the dying minutes, Mandar was in the thick of things again, this time laying the ball for Dempo man Alwyn who crowned India’s day in office with a delicate back heel poke from close.

India next play another side from the Super League, Shanghai East India on September 6.

INDIA: Amrinder Singh, Pritam Kotal, Sandesh Jhingan, Joyner Lourenco, Narayan Das, Siam Hanghal (Lalrindika Ralte – 89^th), Pronay Halder, Francis Fernandes, Mandar Rao Desai, Sunil Chhetri (captain), Robin Singh (Alwyn George – 70^th).   

Del Piero Joins Indian Super League

Juventus and Italian legend Alessarndro Del Piero has joined Indian Super League and will be playing for Delhi Dynamos. Del Piero confirmed the news on his official twitter account yesterday and will be soon arriving in India.

Del Piero was reportedely in negotiations with Hungarian club Honved FC but instead decided to become the brand ambassador of the inaugural edition of the Indian Super League.

Del Piero who has played over 500 games scoring 208 goalscorer is considered as one of the greatest Italian footballers. He was also part of the 2006 World Cup winning Italian team.

            List of Achievement and Accolades of Del Piero

• Juventus FC All-time leading scorer with 290 goals.
• Eight times Serie A winner.
• UEFA Champions League winner with Juventus.
• FIFA World Cup winner with Italy in 2006.
• Named as one of the 100 greatest players to ever play the game by Pele in FIFA 100 list.
• Twice Italian Footballer of the year in 1998 and 2008.

AIFF Executive Committee Decisions

Indian coach Wim Kovermans contract ending in October will not be renewed as decided in the executive committee meeting, however Wim will be offered the technical director role replacing Rob Baan.

It is said that AIFF were particular unhappy with India's performance under Wim Kovermans as the team has lost to much lower oppositions like Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan recently. The team also failed to qualify for Challenge Cup and retain the SAFF Championship in 2013.

AIFF also decided to appoint two new foreign coaches for the senior team in place of Wim and the U-17 team in order to start preparations for world cup in 2017.

The venue/dates for various upcoming Domestic Tournaments which were also finalized in the Meeting stay as follows:

1) Federation Cup to be held in Goa from December 28 to January 10, 2015.

2) Senior Women’s National Championship to be held in Orissa.

3) Final Round of the Santosh Trophy to be held in Uttarakhand.

AIFF also decided to hold a new U-15 league in order to prepare large pool of players for U-17 World Cup.ISL, I-League, 2nd Division and other academies are set to take part in the league which is set to begin in 2015. U-15 League is set to be as named Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy.

Star Studded Indian Super League Launched

It was evening of stars as Hero Indian Super League was launched in Mumbai this afternoon, Neeta Ambani the IMG Reliance chairperson along with the representatives of the eight franchises set the stage on fire.

AIFF president Praful Patel who was present on the occasion went on to praise organizers IMG Reliance for promoting the game in the country, saying super league will take the game in nation to next level, he also announced that the country was gearing up for the FIFA U-17 World Cup which is slated to be hosted in 2017.

After all the representatives finished giving a brief on Indian Super League and their respective teams the official logo of the tournament was finally unveiled.

Hero Indian Super League official website was also up and running following the launch. Here's the link - http://www.indiansuperleague.com/

Present on the occasion were Sachin Tendulkar(Kerala Blasters), Abhishek Bachan(Team Chennai), John Abhram(Northeast United), Ranbir Kapoor(Mumbai City) and Varun Dhawan(FC Goa). Salman Khan(FC Pune) and Saurav Ganguly(Athletico De Kolkata) were the only celebrities who were missing out citing personal reasons.

 

Indian Super League is set to kick-off on this October 10th, a total of 8 teams from different cities will play each other in Home & Away format with top four making it to the two legged semi-finals.