India Choke and Oman take Advantage

 India entered this quarter-final tie in a terrific position. They had recovered from a terrible opening defeat and had gone on a good run of victories which had galvanised the team and saw them on the cusp of achieving a place among the top four in the TM world.

Suddenly, experts saw them as dark horses for the title. But the favourites tag does not rest easy on the shoulders of this Indian team and under this extreme pressure they cracked against a less-fancied Oman side.  They entered the game as overwhelming favourites and, as the game kicked off in Oman’s AL-MAIYAHI STADIUM, some were already discussing who India might face in the semi-finals. Oman clearly weren’t listening to this drivel and of the 39534 people who attended the game, at least 30000 were home supporters enthusiastically cheering on their team at every opportunity.

Still, it was the favourites who dominated the early exchanges but they were a little subdued and were able to create only two half-chances which barely troubled the Oman goal. India in fact went on to dominate the match but the pattern created in the opening minutes continued to emerge- India were constantly stifled both by their own inability to overcome complacency and by an awesome overall performance by Oman. This began to show in the 26th. minute and then 2 minutes before halftime when brilliant chances for K.Mahajan and S.Prabhat were thrown away as it seemed to all present as if they were taking it for granted that they’d score. 

Oman took full advantage of India’s sloppiness when they took a shock lead less than two minutes after the restart. Some fine passing between A.Al Qadhi and Z.Istanbali led to the latter shooting beautifully to the back of the net. Frustrated by the apparent lack of reward for their efforts, India seemed to implode thereafter. Oman created some glorious chances in the next 5 minutes and continued to frustrate their opponents. It got all too much for S.Bhattacharya and he undermined any hopes India had by cynically F.Al Amin and a red card followed. The tactical substitution of S.Prabhat- one of India’s best players- as a result of the red card further damaged India’s chances. 

 India did show enough determination to create a myriad of chances as they threw everything at Oman in the final 30 minutes. However, they were always more huffing and puffing than anything else and they found it impossible to truly lift their performance after starting so bad. To be fair, Oman were comfortable and they were superb in defence where R.Al Kasmi really excelled. They shut India down and easily held out for a pivotal 1-0 win. Who says they can’t go on and win it now?!As for India, I’m particularly disappointed that my sweepstake team have been eliminated but they had a good World Cup and they can be proud of their achievements.But it’s Oman’s day!

Mom=M.Firaij (Oman)