Things are looking up for Indian football. Finally. The recently concluded Asian Federation Cup (AFC) under-16 football tournament and the ongoing BRICS under-17 football tournaments have allowed India’s junior footballers to rub shoulders with the best in Asia and the World and hone their skills.
All this augurs well for the forthcoming, FIFA Under-17 World Cup, the first football World Cup of any kind that India will be hosting across six centres of the country in September-October 2017. Goa is one of the key centres hosting the matches. The Indian junior footballers who are presently playing in the BRICS tournament will get the honour to represent India against the World’s best in 2017.
All this is very significant for Indian football. Not everybody will be aware that India was actually an Asian powerhouse in football between the years 1951 and 1964. For over a decade, India under the leadership of Syed Abdul Rahim won the Asian Games gold medal in football in 1951 and 1962, finished a creditable fourth in the 1956 Summer Olympics and were runners-up in the 1964 Asian Cup.
More laurels promised to come our way, but would you believe it, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) actually turned down the invitation to play in the 1950 World Cup held in Brazil!
Among the reasons cited was a lack of awareness about the importance of the World Cup vis-Ã -vis the Olympics, as also lack of funds.
Be that as it may, football administration across the country deteriorated from the 1970s and the world’s most popular game was relegated to third position behind cricket and hockey in India. The best FIFA ranking held by India in recent years is World No-94 in February 1996, which slipped to an abysmal 173 in March 2015, only to improve several notches to 148 in September 2016. The only consolation India can draw today, is that it is the top ranked South Asian team ahead of all our immediate neighbours.
It is precisely in this context that the international exposure our under 16 and under 17 footballers are getting is invaluable. It is these boys, who will soon don India colours and improve the country’s world ranking. The just concluded AFC tournament was a steep learning curve for the Indian junior footballers.
And while the team drew one match, lost two matches, earned a solitary point and did not qualify for the quarter finals, it did not disgrace itself. Instead the boys in blue gave a good account of themselves.
Junior India’s German coach, Nicolai Adam has built a team which has learnt to play an energetic game, short precise passes, quick attacks and the ability to shoot from near or outside the box. All of this was evident when our boys played the United Arab Emirates in the first match at the Fatorda stadium. Some aggressive attacking by the Indian forwards, Komal Thotal and Nirmal Chhetri resulted in a Stalin free-kick getting lodged in the top of the Saudi box early in the game. India was 2-1 up, but an inexplicable defensive strategy adopted by our boys in the second half, allowed the UAE players to attack and win the game 3-2. Lesson to learn--- In football, you never stop attacking.
Further proof of the capabilities of the Indian juniors was evident in the 2-0 lead they took in their second game against the much stronger Saudis at Fatorda. The speedy winger, Aniket Jadhav shot the first goal off a Komal Thotal pass and soon thereafter, Aman Chhetri converted off a perfect pass from the talented Boris Singh. However, the team had not learnt their lessons from the UAE game and slipped into defensive mode in the second half allowing the Saudis to shoot two quick goals in as many minutes around the 80-minute mark. The full time score read 3-2 in Saudi’s favour, but a five minute extension due to stoppage time helped India even the score with a last minute spot kick. One could almost hear the collective sigh of relief emanate from the 4,500 spectators present in the stadium.
In the final game against the powerful Iranians, coach Nicolai was in a mood to experiment. He rested key players, Aman Chhetri and Aniket Jadhav in the first half. The result, Iran opened the scoring easily with the first goal in the 23rd minute.
However, when the speedy duo returned in the second half, they made the much taller and stronger Iranians run around in circles. It is to India’s credit that despite being a player short and playing a ten-man team, they held the Iranians, the tournament runners-up at bay till the very end. Sadly for India, the Iranians were lucky to get two spot kicks in the dying minutes to win the match 3-0, a result not exactly reflective of the gap between the two sides.
One of the other heartening features of the tournament was the enormous support and encouragement provided by the local football fans. Every India game was well attended and it was good to see so many boys and girls from Goa’s youth football programme in attendance at the matches.
Cut to the BRICS tournament. Like in the AFC, India is playing teams that are stronger and more experienced than us. In the opener on Wednesday, we lost 0-1 to a very strong Russian team. No sweat. The experience gained from these two tournaments is worth its weight in gold. Onwards to the World Cup!
