Fairytale of the never crowned champions

With the SAFF championship all but over for Nepal and people looking for what went wrong and pointing their fingers, we should start with what went right in the big stage when it was hardly expected for a side which had a ripped domestice sturcture for the last four years and the persistancy of football federation’s hiccups.

Nepal’s team play at times was worthy for the european teams to sit back and enjoy with the perfect blend of youth and experience and no other team’s coaches kept their mouth shut on praising our team which backfired rather than anything else.

First game against Pakistan was appreciated by most although Nepal being on the losing side which was somewhat bizzare from the always demanding fans. But the team definitely didn’t disappoint their faithfuls in fair to say a weak Bhutan side.

The match that our boys stepped up and showed enough maturity and belief in themselves was definiltely the one against the hosts by stunning the largely vocal home crowd and showing how to win a topsy-turvy clash. But thats where the pros shut as we were given the taste of our own medicine by the islanders.



Nepal definitely were cocksure being considered as title contenders as early as the end of the group stage matches.

Thinking about the dream to the finals and potentially winning the competition against an age level Indian side cost Nepal rather dearly.
Though even a most pessimistic critic wouldn’t rule out the chances of Nepal to lift the championship, the performance on show in the semis were definitely only repeating history of the SAFF.



Fitness level and team management



Nepal is not known in the world for being a strong physical side and were not helped by the fact that Nepal had to play 3 games in 5 days in the group stages. Just for an instance, in the lead up to the second goal late on against the Maldives, Ananta Tamang could barely kick the ball away from the danger zone conceding possession which lead to the second goal.

We can’t say that the players haven’t given cent percent day in day out from training to matchdays but in the lack of proper diets and supervision from the team management, it was always going to show up in some stage.


"Nepal didn’t even have the luxury to strip those drenched gears in the second half while their opposition came out in their brand new warm kit"


Soaked shorts

Players were easily seen pulling up their soaked shorts up to take the free kick for the sake of avoiding heavy legs.

ANFA personnel are definitely sound enough to understand how difficult and physically demanding it is to play with those submerged socks and shorts let alone the lovely game of football.




Dry gears vs drenched gears

Sources told GoalNepal that ANFA hadn't prepared for this. They didn't carry three sets of jerseys with them to Dhaka.

Team management should have checked weather forecast of Bangladesh before coming to Dhaka and should have arranged proper gears to the players. That wasn't the case.

They should have suggested players to carry or provided number of football studs to cope up slippery playing field. That was not even a thought.

Maldives looked smart in half time and they appeared firm in the field throughout the match.

Small things bring big changes. But when is it coming at ANFA?

Arjun Aryal, contributor to GoalNepal.com