Time for India to step up

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It’s hard to describe Indian football at present.

Ranging from frightfully mediocre against tougher opponents to supremely insouciant in dispatching the few teams that are ranked below them according to FIFA, the Indian team has shown the kind of peaks and troughs associated with seasons rather than a span of a couple of weeks.

Fresh from a pre-SAFF tournament 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Zambia, India started with a nervy 1-1 against a resurgent and motivated Afghanistan team, who would later go on to maul Bhutan 8-1. A few decent efforts, but quite clearly, the obvious lack of quality in midfield and in the wings hurt India.
Discipline has never been our forte, and with an inferior physical ability to what seems to be 99.9% of the living universe, discipline is what counts on the field.

Incisive, quick passing from the Afghans meant that India were torn apart more than once and forced into last ditch tackles, lunges, and saves.

India played Bhutan next, and perhaps that was providential in a sense, as the minnows would be at most capable of letting India play as if it were an attack versus defence game, where defence would be a term used in the loosest of ways.

A 5-0 thrashing, with a brace for the excellent Clifford Miranda and Sunil Chettri adding to the tireless Syed Rahim Nabi’s first goal. A clinical 3-0 victory against Sri Lanka followed, which meant that at the time of going into press, India were to face Maldives in the semi-finals of the SAFF Championships.

A turgid first half against the Lankans was followed by a relatively dazzling display in the second, with goals from Jeje and Chettri and an own goal adding gloss to the scoreline.

The SAFF championships semifinals will be played between a plucky Nepal side and a battling Afghanistan in Match 1, and India and the dangerous Maldives in Match 2.