It is a very sad time for Indian football, fans are disappointed, fans on social media are exploding that Indian football is finished. Fans are angry about passing skills of Indian players and their approach. This kind of narrative can be seen nowadays after 3-0 defeat against Uzbekistan in AFC Asian cup.
Table of Contents
Questions against Indian Football:
Everyone is raising question against coach Igor Štimac and captain Sunil Chhetri. We can probably say Indian football, our football is down and out this time. We are probably out of Asian cup and our next match is against Syria which is a tough team who drew against Uzbekistan and conceded one goal against Australia which holds 25th rank in international football. Syria is physically better team than us, and of course a strong team.
Whom to blame:
Fans are furious on Indian football team for their performance, they are not happy. Watching a reel Sunil Chhetri scoring goal with lehra doo… in background song does not mean he will score in every game. First of all we fans kept very high expectation. Let me explain, first of all we did not face any Asian team in Asian games technically. Australia shifted their confederation to Asia way back. Uzbekistan has Russian roots. If you have seen the match you could see Uzbekistan players have crazy genetics, which matters in game like football. Difference could be seen on the pitch.
Let ourselves down last night.
— Igor Štimac (@stimac_igor) January 19, 2024
We slipped up early and didn’t give ourselves a chance to stick to the game plan. We knew Uzbekistan’s attack will be trickier than Australia, and didn’t deal with it well in the first half.
Disappointed but not giving up, more work to do 🙏🏻🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/AzpsuiZ1EM
Wake-up call for AIFF:
But that does not mean this defeat should not bother us. To be more precise this is a wake up call for all india football federation (AIFF). Every body who knows a bit about Indian football knows that without a proper footballing structure from grassroot level we can not expect our team to show results in big stages. Supporting football in india is a very long term thing, you can not expect results anytime soon.
Facing good teams is equally important. In last 2 years we did not faced better team than Australia and Uzbekistan. We did not face better teams and that’s why we not prepared for better teams. We have 4-5 quality players and they all were benched due to injury or some other reason. Jackson out… anwar ali out..sahal out…and Chhangte got injured. Suil chetri is 38 years of age. Clearly there is not point of judging right now. With this condition it is like expecting a miracle.
Our improvement:
People say where is improvement?? We used to lose years back and we are still loosing. But in my opinion there is improvement!! We high pressed Uzbekistan, played up front against them despite their better abilities and we missed near goal chances in second half.
If you watch post match interview of Uzbekistan’s coach he said,” India caused us problems, specially in first half. I did not expect this team to play like this.”
But again who cares!! Everyone wants results.
I hope this defeat turns out to be a tight slap and realize authorities that where Indian football lies. You can’t send this team with this preparation in big tournaments.
Again question against coach that if we don’t have our main players why are we not adapting sitting back approach. But what is the point of working four years then?? What is point of working for four years and bringing a shift in mentality??
Luck factor:
One can say that the first goal we concede was a bad luck, we were pressing high but we concede a very bad goal, a minute detail can change the game and I guess this happened with us.
Overall, I am very proud of this campaign. We perfectly approached both the games, we used players in the best way. Obviously I was expecting india to win against Uzbekistan, but can’t change the reality. At the same time accepting that we are not good enough.
Last game vs Uzbekistan’s:
In last game Sandesh Jhingan gave a terrific performance, he won almost every ball, every header. But in this game questions are raising against him. Why? Because football is about approach. India’s approach against was to play high line. Sandesh jhingan nd rahul are not good enough defenders in high line. Because playing 40 yards away from goal is a different approach, a different mindset, the team should in be in a top notch coordination. And India got 12 training session for this.
Uzbekistan stopped their football league for this tournament. Uzbekistan’s under-17 team reached under-17 world cup semi-final. You can see the difference.
So Indian football is a long journey. I hope it’s a wake up call for AIFF.
