A New Dawn

When Thierry Makon’s spot kick hit the cross post, the crowd seemed to be at their jubilant high for a moment. But the ball gets deflected to roll an inch from the line before Subrata Paul managed to clear it to become champions for the third time in a row. Until then, the mere full crowd was kept at their bay for a intense 120 minutes of great play. Ranking doesn’t mattered Indian Football Team when they entered the Nehru Cup as the lowest ranked , but with their strong determination and indefinite spirit they outclassed everyone including the African Giant Cameroon in the final to emerge as the champions of our very own prestigious tournament.

This scenes are hardly a month old but the coming days pose a huge test for Wim Koevermans and his boys, since they crossed the first hurdle with the astonishing triumph. But “What’s next?” is the question from every Indian fan’s heart. For this, the Indian coach and his boys sounded the need of playing regular international friendly matches at more FIFA dates as it improves the ranking steadily. Can playing more international friendlies alone improve our rankings? Yes of course, it does, but must be done with proper planning. First of all, we need to play against opponents who are slightly higher than us, only in terms of ranking and not in terms of playing and skills. Then they should look to compete against teams that are placed between 90-130 in rankings. These teams will pose a stiff challenge in our road to reach the top.

Moreover, India should play their international friendly matches mostly at home. Since the turnout for the Nehru cup was one of the best the team has received in recent years, the AIFF needs to properly spread the fever of one of the most globalised sport in the world to inspire the fans to come and cheer their men at stadiums regularly.

The next prime target would be to qualify for the AFC Asia cup 2015. For that, we need to win the AFC Challenge cup 2014. It is time to step up now to enter the AFC Asia Cup once again. Coach Wim Koevermans also has to build on his predecessor Bob Houghton’s method of training at international standards like playing Portuguese and Spanish third and second division clubs. Wim Koevermans needs to arrange world tours against top European team or it’s reserve side in the summer, after the conclusion of I-League. Playing against top teams always improves our players confidence levels and game spirits.

The AIFF and Wim Koevermans also need to make sure that our bench strength is always raring to roar at high levels when they are called upon. Here it involves a process where AIFF needs to implement the idea followed by BCCI to improve it’s bench strength that is organizing matches between main teams vs reserve teams. Conducting a tournament between India’s main 11, reserve 11 and emerging 11 will test the quality of bench strength.

The high point of Wim Koevermans coaching career until now is the passing game of the Indians. The art of playing passing, possession and position football was literally visible in India’s style of play at the recently concluded Nehru Cup. It’s simply superb that our boys have started to adapt to the system in quickly and if they improve their speed and ball control, they will be ready to match and march against the giants.

Most of the members of the Nehru cup are youngsters, which means they need to perform at higher standards so as to cement their places in the national team. But more importantly, the Nehru cup triumph gave the young guns a taste of being part of a victorious team.

After the Nehru Cup victory, a huge path has opened for the Indian football team but the challenge now is taking things to a higher level. If they want to prevail in this path, they need to be more determined, disciplined and more spirited to make their presence felt in international Football.

Jai Hind!