Time to overhaul Indian football
After giving their hearts out against Oman in Bangalore on 11th June, India’s defeat at the hands of Guam a few days later, a tiny US territory in the North Pacific Ocean, was embarrassing.
Though, the score line was same, but the two performances couldn’t have been more different. Against Oman, India played with energy, drive and purpose. While against Guam, the players looked nervous when they came face-to -face with opposition players and resorted to a long ball approach. This strategy works when you have players like Pirlo and Beckham in your side, who have the ability to find the smallest of spaces on the pitch, but India don’t. Indian coach Constantine said after the Oman match, “Believe me, I didn’t ask them to play the long ball. That’s not how I want them to play the game.” But looking at the Guam match, it seems very little changed.
One way to solve these technical problems is to spend more time on the training ground, but unfortunately for the national team there hasn’t been much of practice time. Before going in to the world cup qualifiers, India didn’t play a single friendly. The squad got together just four days before the Oman match, giving very little time to Constantine to prepare his players. Both Oman and Guam played two friendlies each before beginning their qualifier campaign. More preparation time would have given the squad time to gel and work more on tactics.
There is a debate whether it’s time for an Indian coach to take charge of the Indian national team. Former India coach Dutchman Wins Kovermans was reportedly paid $20,000 a month, while Constantine is getting the same or a little less. The AIFF could have handed the job to an Indian instead for the same amount or less, after all the results in the past show that India have done better under an Indian coach.
Former Indian forward Syed Hakim spoke to The Sunday Guardian regarding the condition of Indian football. He said, “The result versus Guam was expected, the condition of football in India has been deteriorating over the past 2-3 years. In the 70’s and the 80’s the game was much more widely spread across the nation, but now football is only concentrated only in a few regions.”
Hakim is not happy at how the numbers of tournaments across India have decreased steadily over the past two decades. “Earlier, due to the high volume of young talent, players had to work extra hard in order to make it to the national team, but the situation is totally different now. Players feel secure in their position and there is no one to challenge them. Competition for a spot in the team no longer exists. The supply line has slowly deteriorated.”