“I love you Eugenson!,” the reporters are halfway into the interaction with Lyngdoh when the team bus enters the stadium. Forward Sunil Chhetri can’t help but shower his affection towards his teammate as he passes by.
Seconds later, Robin Singh jumps off the bus, an expensive boombox in his right hand on full blast. Singh’s song of choice? Move Your Lakk – the club banger by Badshah and Diljit Dosanjh.
The Indian national football team consists of some big personalities. Among them, a calm and collective Eugeneson attempts to express himself. For someone who pursued and eventually dropped out of engineering, Lyngdoh sure knows a thing or two about engineering key passes on the football field.
Back in 2015, he made his debut for India against a team he will once again face off against on Tuesday – Nepal.
“It was my first match for the county. I just remember standing on pitch, when they were playing the national anthem. It felt great, it felt like I have achieved something you know? A dream that I’ve always wanted to achieve.
“I was a new player to the team, senior players like Robin Singh and Sunil helped me. The coaching staff too,” he added.
India managed to hold on to their 100th rank this month but Eugeneson admits it’s been far from smooth. The team has had to endure some arduous moments over the course of the last two years. Moving 73 places in twenty-four months is no doubt impressive but he reckons a lot more is left to be desired.
“The journey has always been tough, we’ve had our ups and downs. There were games when we played badly but things are now falling into place. We have a lot to learn and a lot of progress needs to be made. We have greater things ahead of us but we wish to be among the elite. I don’t see why we can’t. We do have talent in our country,” he stated.
After a long season, it wouldn’t be farfetched to assume that some of the players are attempting to shrug aside fatigue. But Lyngdoh admits that motivation is never an issue when playing for the country. Come what may.
“The mood is great and the players are excited to represent the country again after a long season. Obviously, the Kyrgyzstan game is what we’re looking forward to. The Nepal game is important too for us to be focused.”
Starman Sunil Chhetri was initially sidelined with a muscle tear and was set to miss the qualifiers. He, however, recovered in time and Eugeneson admits his presence in the dressing room always helps immensely. Something which you can’t put a price on.
“It’s obviously a big boost to the whole team. He’s been great for the country and club and has proved himself time after time. We need a guy like him on the pitch. The players are now 110% convinced that we have something.”
While plying his trade for Bengaluru FC, Lyngdoh is accustomed to playing more with the ball. But he reckons that playing for India is a different ball game altogether, in terms of style, tactics and objective.
“In BFC, we normally try to keep the ball a lot. We try to play a possession based game. While playing for India, we want to go hard and be aggressive from the beginning, try to get an early goal. For India, it’s more like always pushing ourselves forward as fast as we can,” he signed off.
Also Read: The curious season of Eugeneson Lyngdoh and Bengaluru FC's fall from the perch
