India looking for hat-trick of titles under Bob in Nehru Cup

New Delhi: Aiming for a title hat-trick under coach Bob Houghton but hampered by lack of international match exposure, defending champions India will bid for a second consecutive Nehru Cup, taking on Lebanon in a tricky opener of the five-nation tournament. Under Houghton, India won the 2007 edition of the Nehru Cup before clinching the AFC Challenge Cup at home, which gave the country a berth in the elite AFC Asian Cup, to be held in Doha in January 2011, after 24 years. The Nehru Cup will give Houghton a chance to test his boys how they measure up to at least two quality sides -- Syria and Lebanon -- who are now vying for a place in the Asian Cup.Bhaichung Bhutia and Co is a confident lot after a seven-week training tour of Dubai and Barcelona. They played friendly games against Spanish third division sides in their month-long sojourn in Barcelona where they used top class facilities at Nou Camp. The sore point though would be the lack of international fixtures. The Indians played their last such match in January though Houghton claimed that the Spanish third division sides "were of our level". Houghton himself picked last edition runners-up Syria as the favourites to win the tournament at the Ambedkar Stadium, considering that the West Asians are inside top 100 in FIFA rankings at 95th and have beaten sides like China besides drawing Korea this year. But, having said that, he will have to put his distractions aside and try to motivate his team-mates in front of the home crowd in a country virtually starved of international football matches. More than 20,000 people came to the Ambedkar Stadium in the final against Syria on August 29, 2007 to cheer the home team, which won 1-0. Exuberant fans celebrated wildly and Bhaichung and Co. would want to see similar scenes here again on August 31. The Teams: India (From): Subrata Pal, Arindam Bhattacharya, Subhashish Roy Chowdhury, Govin Singh, NS Manju, N Mohanraj, Anwar, Deepak Mondal, Mahesh Gawli, Surkumar Singh, Gouramangi Singh, Samir Naik, Mehrajuddin Wadoo, Baldeep Singh Jr, NP Pradeep, Renedy Singh, Syed Rahim Nabi, Steven Dias, Clifford Miranda, Anthony Pereira, Jagpreet Singh, Climax Lawrence, Rakesh Masih, Sunil Chetri, Baichung Bhutia, Sushil Kumar Singh, Abhishek Yadav. Lebanon (From): Lary Mehanna, Elias Freije, Ali Al Saadi, Ahmad El Khodor, Hussein Amine, Bilal Cheikh El Najjarine, Ali El Atat, Hamze Abboud, Mohamad Baker Younes, Mohamad Korhani, Amer Khan, Abbas Ahmad Atwi, Hussein Dakik, Ali Yaakoub, Hassan Daher, Akram Moghrabi, Mahmoud El Ali, Hassan Maatouk, Mohamad Ghaddar, Ali Hamam. Bureau Report