Cricket World Cup winners India aim for football title
Perennial no-hopers India have no realistic hopes of making to the final round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Nevertheless, the world’s second most populous country has embarked on a qualification journey to join the select nations which will play in the South American country.
India has never featured in any of the 19 editions of the quadrangular event, its best chance came in 1950 but the country backed out in an era when Indians played bare footed.
“The myth that Indians refused to play because they were not allowed to play barefoot is not entirely true, according to the then Indian captain Shailen Manna, it was just a story to cover up the disastrous decision of the All India Football Federation (AIFF). The governing body AIFF decided against going to the World Cup, being unable to understand the importance of the event at that time,” says Wikipedia.
The period from 1951 to 1962 is considered the golden era in Indian football. Under the tutelage of legendary Syed Abdul Rahim India became the best team in Asia. The Indian team started the 1950s with their triumph in the 1951 Asian Games which they hosted. India beat both Indonesia and Afghanistan 3-0 to reach the final where they beat Iran 1-0.
At the 1956 Olympic Games they finished fourth, which is regarded as one of finest achievements in Indian football. India first met hostsAustralia, winning 4-2 with Neville D'Souza becoming the first Asian to score a hatrick in the Olympics and also making India the first Asian team to reach the Olympic semi-finals. They lost 4-1 to Yugoslavia, and lost the third place play-off match 3-0 to Bulgaria.
India went on to win the 1962 Asian Games where they beat South Korea 2-1 in the final and took third place in the 1970 Asian Games, beating Japan 1-0 in the third place, play-off.
Switch to the modern day era and one finds the Bhangra Boys been pitted against UAE (110 FIFA world rank) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Emirates_national_football_team in the first round qualifiers. India encounters UAE on July 23 (away) in Abu Dhabi and on July 28 (home) in Delhi.
UAE, the oil-rich Persian country, like some of its neighbors like Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar have been following a policy of giving citizenship to footballers from different parts of the world to strengthen its squad.
In sharp contrast, India which does not allow for dual citizenship has preferred to rely on home grown talent to serve its cause but without any success. So a Michael Chopra, English Premier League player of Indian origin playing for India has remained a distant dream, although the player has time and again expressed his intention of playing for India.
Coming back to the current qualification campaign Goa-born coach Armando Colaco http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armando_Colaco faces a herculean task. But, UAE are beatable and that happened in 2001.
India last faced UAE on Indian soil back in 2001 in a World Cup qualifier in Bangalore. At that time, the West Asian nation was ranked 64th in the world. India upset all odds to beat UAE 1-0 with midfielder Jules Alberto scoring the only goal of the game.
For Colaco, this is his maiden stint with the national team, all his success has come at the club level for Dempo SC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dempo_SC, the club where he also served as a player and now holds the dual duties of a coach-cum-general secretary. He has been given a temporary break of three months by his club to take up the national assignment.
Currently Indian football is in a transitional phase (India are 145 in FIFA World ranking). A beginning of a new era, bye-bye to Bob Houghton welcome to Armando Colaco. Houghton served as coach of the Indian team for five years.
The globetrotting English coach http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Houghton who has had been quite critical of the infrastructure facilities and the lack of quality coaches in India. The 63-year- old had nothing substantial to show in terms of results.
Although India qualified for the 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar after a gap of 24 years, the team fared miserably losing all their three matches to Australia, Bahrain and South Korea.
Several members of the 2011 Asian Cup have been omitted. There is not Baichung Bhutia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baichung_Bhutia in the squad. The Sikkimese Sniper in 1999 became the first Indian footballer to play professional football in Europe. He played for Bury FC. Another veteran shown the door is Renedy Singh.
Colaco’s squad consists of a blend of the old war horses and the raw talent eager to bend their backs to get the nod.
Ten players in the thirty member squad are still uncapped at the senior level and will definitely be eager to win their first international cap.
The young guns eager to fire are goalkeepers Laxmikant Kuttimani and Karanjit Singh.
The players to watch out for are Under-23 captain and long throw specialist Raju Eknath Gaikwad and striker Jeje Lalpekhlua. Jeje, has been recently ranked as one of the top ten promising players in Asia by Sports Illustrated magazine. Jewel Raja Sheikh and Shilton D’Silva, are the other two Under-23 players who have been consistently performing for the age-group teams and have been rewarded a place in the senior squad.
The squad also has a few veterans like defender Mahesh Gawli (he was in the team when India defeated UAE in 2001), Sameer Naik and Climax Lawrence.
Colaco who has been preparing ground for a smooth transitional phase- passing the baton from the old to the young- has been criticized for having a large number of Dempo players in the squad.
But he has justified his selection, as he wants the Indian team to play the ‘Dempo Way’- and to demonstrate his style he needs players who are used to his style of play and who have been playing with the same method as his club (Dempo) level.
And one should feel sad for Khangembam Khelemba Singh, Gilbert Oliviera, and Rocus Lamare, who failed to make it to the final squad as they did not possess passports, a clear indication, of the unprofessional approach of the players, clubs and above all of the parent body AIFF.
India play in Doha on July 17 before encountering UAE in World Cup Qualifiers on July 23 (away) in Abu Dhabi and on July 28 (home) in Delhi.
Note: The 19 World Cup tournaments have been won by eight different national teams. Brazil have won five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. The other World Cup winners are Italy, with four titles; Germany, with three titles; Argentina and inaugural winners Uruguay, with two titles each; and England, France, and Spain, with one title each.
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