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13 February 2003

Well we have recently returned from Bangladesh and the SAF Cup where we finished in third place.

A little disappointing but the circumstances throughout the tournamnent were a disgarce from all sides - the traiining facilities were poor, the food was poor, and the hostility directed toward the Indian contingent was deplorable.

On the football side we played well in patches, but though having five days to prepare for a majot tournamnet is enough in Europe, in Asia we need the players for longer periods of time.

The loss to Pakistan in the first game was a blow even though we could have won by six or seven!!

We went on to beat Afghanistan 4-0 and then drew with Sri Lanka who had to win to go through - they equalised in time added on! but a draw was enough for us.

Unfortunately there was not much football played in the semi-final against Bangladesh, it was more like unarmed combat and the referee letting everything go!!!

We finally went down to a lovely strike in the golden-goal rule time.

We beat Pakistan to win thrid place again in the sudden death time and redeemed ourselves from the first defeat.

I would like to add here that the two games played against Pakistan were played in the right spirit of the game which is more then I can say about the game against Bangladesh.

Both sets of players deserve a lot of credit and shirts were exchanged and worn by Indian and Pakistani players, perhaps the politicians should take notice!

Next up are the Asian Cup qualifiers against N.Korea and then we have the pre Olympic qualifiers.

Thank you all for reading.

All the best

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Stephen Constantine National Team Coach India