When Rohit Chand received a red card for pushing Martin Boyle back at the dawn of halftime, it was clear Nepal was gone for a long night. They were manhandled by Australia with 11 men on the pitch in the final match of this World Cup and Asian Cup qualifying round in Kuwait last Friday as they led 2-0 at the start of the season. half-time thanks to goals from Mathew Leckie and Fran Karacic. . But, with their best players and their red seeing talisman, things got a lot more difficult.

Even though they started the second half better than the first, they quickly conceded a Boyle goal after failing to handle a simple cross into the box as Australia put the pressure on. As of that moment, things did not improve as Nepal continued to face the music as Australia put the pressure on as they hit 36 ​​shots in the allotted 90 minutes.

Offensively, Nepal were mediocre as they didn’t even force the Australian goalkeeper to make a save. But, from a defense perspective, there are things to be proud of, including the performance of Kiran Chemjong, Ananta Tamang and Pujan Uparkoti. This virtually ended Nepal’s chance to qualify directly for the next round of the Asian Cup qualifiers, but there were some positive signs that gave Nepalese fans hope.

Play “positive”

“It’s a tough loss but we did our best,” Abdullah Almutairi said after the game. “Our game plan was to hit them on the counter, but when you play such a good team that is physically dominant it’s tough.”

Australian coach Graham Arnold also praised Nepal’s fighting mentality, pointing out that Nepal’s performance on Friday was much better than Australia where they lost 5-0.

“They fought hard and didn’t stop running. They gave us a fight, ”Arnold said.

Nepal have played their last three World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers, including one against Chinese Taipei and the others against Australia and Jordan.

The victory over Chinese Taipei was routine. Taking the game into the limelight, Nepal quickly came out on top as Anjan Bista sent an early penalty. Bista, throughout the match, had plenty of opportunities to extend Nepal’s lead, but poor decision making in the final third and a poor finish kept the match tight until the 80’s.^e minute when Nawayug Shrestha came off the bench to put the result out of doubt.

This match, following Nepal’s 6-2 loss to Iraq on May 29, showed Nepalese fans hope that Nepal is able to play positive attacking football by taking advantage of the space left by the Iraqi side to score goals. Most of the young players impressed, but what caught the fans’ attention was how positively Nepal played.

No more long balls full of hope as the Almutairi team played with poise and confidence. Yes, there have been times when the players made mistakes resulting in goals (especially against Iraq), but their performance against Taipei was very positive.

The players looked up and tried to spot the players taking races, both behind and outside.

The Gorkhali way and the hope of goals

Most of the passes Nepal played were on the ground as they looked to throw balls at runners who were running ambitious runs behind the defense. The wide players also did a great job using the space as they created a lot of problems for Chinese Taipei who were very poor that night.

This gave fans a lot of hope as many were looking for a similar performance against Jordan. But it was not to be. Nepal was shown how much it needs to improve to compete with countries like Jordan.

Jordan started the game on the front foot, harassing Nepal with crosses and long-range effort. Nepal treated them pretty well until Rohit Chand conceded a botched penalty to give Jordan the lead. Despite Jordan’s continued attack, Nepal kept them in the game in hopes of hitting them on the block, but were unlucky as Jordan’s power and pace troubled Nepal throughout. half-time.

The second half was a similar sight. Nepal conceded a free kick from Baha Faisal which put Nepal out of sight. Yazan Al-Arab finished the game coming home third with another free kick.

Nepal’s performance in this game was positive. As against Iraq and Taipei, they played with a game plan to exploit the spaces. But, against better teams, it seems likely that the players have to execute the plan well.

“We played like Gorkhalis,” Almutairi said after the loss to Australia.

And, he was right. After Graham Roberts, Nepal has a coach with character and attitude. In no time Almutairi put in a lot of effort as he plans to build a squad for the future. Even under pressure from the opponents, the Nepalese team were not so taken aback as they continued to play positive football. So far, this is a good sign because the performance has been good even though the results did not come this way.

For that to happen a lot of work on the training ground is needed and Almutairi knows it.