The Indian football team continued their winning run at home, clinching the Tri-Nation friendly tournament with wins over Myanmar and the Kyrgyz Republic in Manipur. The success against the much lower-ranked Myanmar, a 1-0 win, was expected but the 2-0 win over the Kyrgyz Republic was impressive considering the fact that the Central Asian neighbours are placed 12 rungs higher than India's FIFA ranking of 106. Since then, India have climbed four places to 102 in the rankings -- a step closer to breaking into top-100 again but still adrift of their best-ever position of 94 achieved in 1996.
The small improvement is significant as India goes into the preparation mode for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, which is slated to be held in Qatar in January-February next year. India has made steady progress under head coach Igor Stimac and now are a more compact unit under the former Croatia World Cup star. The Asian Cup will be in all likelihood the last assignment for Stimac and he would like to sign off on a high. India had a strong showing in the 2019 AFC Asian, but a last-minute penalty in their final group match against Bahrain cost them a spot in the knockout rounds. Now a much-improved side brimming with new talent and good squad depth, the fans can expect a deeper run in the tournament from Stimac's men.
Problem of profligacy
However, while there is overall progress, certain problem areas remain for Stimac and the team think tank to work on. The biggest area of concern, as on the evidence from the showing in the Tri-Nation friendly tournament, is their profligacy in front of goal. While their defence was not tested as much, the frontline was wasteful with their chances as two of the three goals they scored came from set-pieces while the other goal from open play was a lucky strike aided by a favourable deflection. Although Sunil Chhetri raked up his 85th international goal to go past Hungary legend Ferenc Puskas, there were many more chances that the India captain missed. With his powers waning, relying on Chhetri as their only source of goals could prove costly for India. Hence, Stimac's big ask is finding a successor to Chhetri in time for the continental tournament in Qatar. It doesn't help him that there is a dearth of Indian centre forwards in the Indian Super League. Now, the onus is on the national coach to create that option himself by fielding available options in Chhetri's position.
While Stimac faces the challenge of finding the Indian captain's replacement, he must be buoyed by the overall development of his squad with debutants Mehtab Singh, Ritwik Das and Naorem Mahesh Singh impressing on their bow. In the four years at the helm of Indian football, Stimac has shuffled over 60 players in his teams but hasn't settled on a preferred core of players. The national team, for a change, has a busy schedule to look forward to as they will participate in Hero Inter-Continental Cup, SAFF Championship, Asian Games, Kings Cup and the Merdeka Cup in the tune-up to the Asian Cup. It is Stimac's chance to try out his combinations and prune his options in over six months of competition before the big test in Qatar early next year.
