Indian footballers face daunting task
Buoyed by the improved performance in recent tournaments, India will be far more determined to
make a significant impact in the football event of the 14th
Asian Games though winning a medal looks quite remote.
With strong teams like hosts South Korea, Japan, China
and defending champions Iran in the fray, the new-look Indian
team under English coach Stephen Constantine will face its first major
test and it remains to be seen whether they are capable of
upsetting many an applecart.
Constantine has managed to instill a sense of purpose
and discipline in the team and the results have started to
show as the Indians have done reasonably well in recent
international matches.
Clubbed in Group C alongwith China, Turkmenistan and
Bangladesh, the Indians face a daunting task to qualify for the quarter-final stage of the event, which promises some thrilling battles of skill and nerves.
Desperate to break the medal drought, the Indians will
open their campaign against neighbours Bangladesh on September
27, two days ahead of the official opening ceremony of the
Games.
Twenty-four 24 teams will be vying for top honour in the
championship, which will be played at five different venues. Iran had won
the coveted gold medal at the last Asian Games in Bangkok, defeating Kuwait 2-0 in the final.
Constantine, who took over as the coach of the national
team about two months back, has made the young team believe
in their abilities while working on endurance and skill.
"I don't have a magic wand to change things overnight. It
will take some time. You have to be patient," Constantine had
said after taking over the job.
Although football followers have been patient for many
years now with one coach after another coming and going,
Constantine has apparently gelled well with the boys and that
has been the key to the recent upswing in performance.
The title victory in the six-nation LG Cup in Vietnam in
August has served as a big confidence-booster for the Indians
who have struggled to win a title in lower grade international
meets also.
The team, led by Baichung Bhutia, which reached
the port city of Busan a few days early to get acclimatised to the
conditions, has featured in a few exposure trips to prepare
for the Games.
After their success in Vietnam, the Indians played two
matches against Jamaica in England and then played two more
friendly matches against Uzbekistan at home to fine-tune their
game ahead the sporting extravaganza.
The last time India won a medal was in the 1962 Games in
Jakarta where it won gold thanks to the brilliant
efforts of P K Banerjee and Jarnail Singh, who scored in the
2-1 victory over South Korea. But since then, no medal of any
hue has come their way.