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Remember the movie Chak De! India where the women’s hockey team were condescendingly looked upon by the administartors but they came out champions in the end. Well the story sort of turned out to be true on friday, except the game was football.
The Indian women’s national football team, to whom the AIFF have always turned a blind eye, did what the Indian men’s national football team have failed to do. In India where the men are expected to achieve a notch up than women, a sort of role reversal happened. Indian women’s team scripted a historic victory in Pakistan in the SAFF Cup final and clinched it for the record third time.
Last year Indian men’s had also reached the final of the SAFF Cup and were on route to win a treble until Afghanistan shattered their hopes with a 2-0 victory. However the Indian women showed the way as to how to finish the job thumping Nepal 6-0. The Women’s SAFF Cup which had started in 2010, has now been won by the Indian women team three times, Nepal being the finale opponent on each occasion. It’s not only the win but also the score margin by which they had achieved the feat is mind boggling.
India started their title defence thrashing Maldives 8-0. It was the Maldives whom they had previously humbled in the Asian Games 2014 with more than a dozen goals. Next victims were the girls in green from Bangladesh.They pipped Bangladesh with 5-1 scoreline.
Just when it seemed that women in blue might ease off, they instead became more relentness. Their next prey were the hapless Afghanistan. The Indians were so ruthless in their raid that they scored eight goals before the stroke of half-time only. Piling more miseries on their opponents, they added further four in the second half, thus ending the game with scoreboard reading 12-0.
The fate was similar in the semi-final as the girls didn’t take their foot off the pedal, drubbing Sri-lanka 5-0. Entering the SAFF Cup final third year in the trot, their rivals were the same from previous editions: Nepal. The last two finals had been a closely contested affair between both the teams and was expected to be the same this year. Apparently, the first quarter of the game indicated that the match would go down to the wire but instead it turned out to be a false signal.
As Kamala broke the deadlock with a neat finish in the 26th minute, all hell broke loose. India smothered their opponent then on with their fast-paced passing and in the process pumped 6 goals to make it three consecutive championship win.
In totality, Indian girls slotted 36 goals and allowed only one exhibiting their dominance in the sub-continent. The standout performer of the tournament was the Indian forward Bala Devi whose personal tally of goals stood at 16 - highest in a single edition of the championship.
It’s amazing to know that the same team which is currently ranked 53 in FIFA rankings were once dropped from the list in 2009 due to inactivity of football.
Our women’s team have been performing extremely well in the sub-continent despite the fact that they haven’t been afforded the same facilities which the boys have been receiving for the past few years. In Asian games also, our team was beaten convincingly only by countries way above us in the rankings and whose players are accorded better training than the Indian players. Nevertheless, this form in SAFF cup suggests that given the right kind of training and guidance these girls can go the distance.
Starting right from the basic level, coaching to conditioning, everything must be provided of world-class level. Exposure trips to foreign countries, technically sound support staffs and introduction of professionalism similar to that of cricket.In short the complete administration must be institutionalized, then only we can yield world class results from these girls.
As the things stand, it seems like a pipe-dream for the men’s team to qualify for the FIFA World-Cup but in women’s case it could be a reality soon if the AIFF take this SAFF Cup win seriously and usher a positive change in preparing the girls for future battles.
