Scared? Heck no! Excited? Hell ya! This is it. Two weeks to the Asia Cup 2011. And India will be in it! Sure, we’re not all very ‘up’ about what might happen there (3 games, a possibility of 20+ goals conceded and kthxbai is what the odds suggest).
But lets take a moment to appreciate the magnitude of this and how this affects the future of Indian football. The Asia Cup – the biggest footballing event for Asian countries after the World cup. A stepping stone, if you will, to the world stage. And for team India, it really is! In Australia, Bahrain and South Korea, we’re going to be playing teams ranked 1,3 and 7 in Asia. And that is just brilliant for experience’s sake.
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Now, some of you might be saying the margins of defeat could be significantly lowered if we hadn’t been drawn into this ‘group of death’ where we’re currently being seen as the team which will separate the other sides on the basis of goal difference. That, however, is not how I see it. I am actually glad that we’re playing the Asian heavyweights – simply because I’d rather we get pushed around by a world cup quality side (two and a half of which we have in our group) rather than the average Asian side simply because the learning curve would be far far greater when we’re exposed to these sides.
Great players tend to emerge in these games, when the backs are to the wall and the minnows need inspiration. The only way for a minnow to grow into a heavyweight is to play good, tough games against existing heavyweights. South Korea weren’t nearly as good pre-world cup 2002, nor Japan – all that has changed is the quality of sides they have played during and after that tournament. The world cup in 2002 produced Park Ji-Sung, a player who signed for PSV Eindhoven soon after the tournament and is now a household name at Manchester United. And it was the wins against Spain, Portugal and Italy which caught the worlds attention – I bet a huge majority of people don’t even remember the other games South Korea played.
India is now in a similar situation with a chance to show what we’ve got against three top sides, individual team members and the whole team. This may be the perfect opportunity for a Sunil Chhetri or a Subrata Pal or even a Mohammad Rafi to step up and showcase their talent. And then we’ll see what happens from there.
And then there’s the fans. Personally, as a football fan, I have always dreamed, even fantasized, of a time when India will be playing a big football tournament. A time, when the Indian team will play great games and drive huge sets of spectators absolutely mental with joy. Goals, penalty saves, late drama – you name it, the fantasies have happened.
Now, it’s all finally coming true – and this is the first step. Two weeks to what is hopefully the beginning of a wonderful dream. And whatever may happen in Doha over the next month, I hope we will be looking back at the Asia Cup 2011 as the true turning point in Indian football.
