The Last Missing Mile

In the months that have gone by, the India sports fan has not had much to cheer about.

The Indian hockey team at the hockey World Cup, lost to opponents that it should have annihilated and let in goals towards the end of the games that pushed a possible win to a draw and draws into defeats. The Indian cricket team fizzled out to West Indies in a meek surrender at the ICC Champions Trophy and the Indian football juniors failed to qualify for the knockout quarterfinal stage in the Asian U20 football tournament in India.

If there is one consistent theme in these sporting failures, it is that India always huffs and puffs to beat weaker opponents. And in a tournament, where one must take maximum points from as many games as possible, failure to do so counts heavily.

India had everything going for it in the Asian Youth Championships. They had home advantage, they had a few champs, they had a decent team, and good chance to squeeze through. They knew that they were going to play against Kyrgyzstan, the weakest team in the Group, in their opening game and could have and should have annihilated them to get maximum points.
But, when the Indian forwards had the opponents' goal at their mercy, they were lost, unsure and unable to deliver the killer punch.
Apart from scoring, they did everything right. They passed accurately, they displayed speed, ball control and character by not losing heart when the Kyrgyz scored against the run of play. But they failed to score and win.
The Danish coach of the Jordanian team, Jan Borge Poulsen, was absolutely right in expressing surprise, almost shock at how good the Indians were. In a sporting sense, India has been such an under performer that a good performance causes every one to sit back, including us and our opponents.
Once again, in the game against Jordan, the India juniors showed character by coming back from 2-1 down to level the game at 2-2. But this time not only were they unable to hold their own, they were done in the Jordanians at the fag end of the game.
One did not expect much against the Koreans, but the India juniors surprised everyone by holding the Koreans at bay till the 76th minute. It is a different matter that after the first goal, the flood gates opened up.

On the whole there were some positives that emerged for India:

1. Self Belief
The juniors should look back and see how close they came to qualifying. All they had to was win against Kyrgyzstan, which is not asking for much and on any other day, they may have gotten the better of Jordan. For Indians, to put up a 3-2 display against the physically stronger West Asians, it was a creditable performance.
Players like Vincent Branco Cardozo, Lal Kamal Bhowmick, that were picked out for praise by coaches of the opposing teams know that they played well.
But these players should still ask themselves, why did they fail to make it to the quarterfinals. Individual praise cannot justify the collective failure as football is a team sport.
Team India (junior or senior) must always focus on winning by large margins against teams that are weaker than us.

2. Looking head to Make Amends
The juniors must realize that they will never be Under-20 again and never again in their life time will get the opportunity to reach the quarterfinal stage of this tournament. But there are other tournaments to follow.
They need to find collective motivation to do better. Nothing is more bitter than looking back at regret and some one should tell these juniors that time flies by really fast. Before they know it, they will be playing in the prime of their youths, which only lasts for a few years.

It is India's good fortune that we have Bob Houghton at the helm and he was watching the games from the sidelines. Some of these juniors will be drafted into the senior national side and they have a couple of years to mature, in time for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.
By then, we hope that these youngsters will have matured and would not indulge in reckless challenges like the ones they threw when the Jordanians had delivered the killer blow and neither will they leave a football field like they did against Kyrgyzstan, shaking their heads and knowing in their hearts that they left points on the field, that were theirs for the taking.
The last missing mile in India's sporting culture has to be bridged and Indian players are in need of mental strength, much more than physical strength.