Despite loss, Indians look at gains made

And this is what he exactly did after a goalless first half. With the 3-5-2 formation failing to unruffle the rival defence, Constantine changed it to 4-4-2 after the half time. But that proved to be just a cosmetic change as that too failed to give the men in the middle a face lift. Unimaginative play and lack of confidence meant no headway.

With Plan A failing, Constantine tried Plan B. With the formation change not working, he tested his bench strength. The English coach started the game today with his second string forwards Abhisek Yadav and Alex Ambrose. The second half saw the late entry of star forward Bhaichung Bhutia and the change was there to see.

Bhutia showed why is he the best player around. Often falling back to assist the mid-field, Bhutia showed showed more creativity than his teammates. His own chance came in the 73rd minute but his header landed dead at the feet of Uzbek goalkeeper Ikramov Mamur.

Yadav, who had a great tournament in Vietnam last month, was a let down today. He still has a long way to go before being a front-line attacker. Ambrose, too cannot be Constantine’s first choice striker who can lend edge to the upfront.

The lone bright spot was Shanmugam Venkatesh’s performance. He along with Tomba Singh worked tirelessly in mid-field but with the forwards having a off day it proved to be a futile effort. As for the rest, it was a tale of half-hearted attempts throughout the match. And when skipper Bhutia said, “we lacked character nor did we have the right attitude. We lacked the fighting spirit”, one couldn’t agree more.

Constantine too stressed on a few grey areas. “They converted the one chance they got while we failed to capitalise on three open chances,” he said. “But everything is not lost.”

In a way that is true when one considers that the series against their fancied rivals was tied at 1-1.