KOLKATA, INDIA: Had Manvir Singh looked up, or positioned himself within shooting range, life would have seemed much simpler for the Indians. Instead, finding himself quite improbably with acres of space while Marquinhos and Arthur Dias looked on almost disinterestedly, the Mohun Bagan attacker believed in his own hype, tried to go for the spectacular and did the footballing equivalent of falling on his face – he ended up being entangled in his own feet.
It was easier to bury Caesar than to praise him, and had Manvir managed to get even the whiff of a connection on that occasion – or the several that came his way throughout this historic encounter between India and Brazil on October 3 in Calcutta – he would have been single-handedly responsible for changing the course of Indian football’s future. But like Brutus, he took far too many liberties, and was rewarded by losing his mob of an audience.
Ryan Williams got closer than Manvir did, but without the greater purpose of having to outdo his colleague, and with the insouciance of having to prove himself Indian enough, his attempts reeked of an uncharacteristic desperation. The future of Indian football – if there is to be one – remains unvarnished, although an ex-Australian has given enough glimpses to prove naysayers wrong and send fresh waves of discontent among native Indian attackers waiting on the periphery.
The bigger game, however, was played by India’s midfielders, Apuia and Anirudh Thapa. The latter, coming into the starting XI in place of Ricky Shabong, roamed the centre of the park as if he were strolling the lawns of Victoria Memorial. And yet, his nomadic tendencies were combined with an urge to draw Brazil’s attackers out of their formation and shape quick counter-attacks for India by allowing Apuia more time off the ball.
India were let down by their most experienced player
The latter was requested by coach Khalid Jamil to provide cover for the central defensive pair of Anwar Ali and Bijoy Varghese, and while the Mizo obliged, he was let down by the duo’s imprecision when setting up long balls. Humility of such sort percolated into the entire Indian defence, with the usually resolute Gurpreet Singh Sandhu also committing howlers in the biggest game of his career.
The others in the Indian squad are young enough to get over a humiliation they had been half prepared for – as will the press and the few thousand paying spectators – but not Sandhu. Having played top-tier football for more than a decade, the lanky Punjabi is among India’s safest custodians since Peter Thangaraj, and to see him forget himself in the heat of the moment seemed insulting to a man known for his equanimity.
Jamil promptly played to the gallery, brought Prabhsukhan Singh Gill on at half-time, and promptly won cheers from hordes of East Bengal supporters, many of whom had harassed, harangued and tormented their club to give them free tickets. Gill’s arrival and a change in shape, however, did little to stem the flow of Brazil’s creativity, which went up a notch after the introduction of Bruno Guimaraes and Douglas Luiz.
Bruno Guimaraes and Douglas Luiz changed the course of Brazil’s creative output
The former’s rotational moves under pressure, and the latter’s counter-pressing were skills people could have travelled 1500 kilometres to watch – as this correspondent did – but it was the fierce nature of Estevao’s left-field breaches of India’s defence that regulated one’s nervous system. In the first half, Vinicius Jr – to see whom there were queues as far as Amherst Street – tried to keep the plebs in thrall, but failing spectacularly to overcome India’s mid-block, he was flagged offside four times.
Striker Pedro was easier to mark for the Blue Tigers, and it took a stern-looking Carlo Ancelotti – donning a three-piece black suit in the diffident humidity of Calcutta – to walk up to the touchline and ask the former to reposition himself as a false number nine. This paid off almost immediately, with the youngster disregarding India’s flanks and firing a measly shot at a meek-looking Sandhu, who remembered his manners and welcomed the ball into the net.
Samuel Lino’s brace in the second half came largely due to India’s inability to play comfortably from the back, with Varghese’s heavy touch providing Luiz a chance to drive the ball forward in the 58th minute, while the shot in stoppage time was struck with a velocity that Gill’s nightmares were made of. Successive inhibited shows at right-back from Valpuia were off-putting for Brazil in the second half, who had come seeking braver opponents.
India vs Brazil will give a major boost to AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey’s re-election prospects
A ‘wealth of experience’ may certainly be ‘gained’ by the Blue Tigers following this result, but their biggest takeaway would be to keep burying chances as and when they get presented, and not give the ladies and gentlemen of the press opportunities to decry their histrionics. For to allow the fourth estate the chance to bury their reputations would mean an entirely different thing, and no man since Jesus has resurrected himself.
The incumbent head of the All India Football Federation, Kalyan Chaubey, too, will gain, but he will not taste the fruits of his labour until December when the next presidential elections are held. There appeared to be no reason for Brazil to play against India except to boost Mr Chaubey’s re-election prospects, as reported by the Tribune, but the precedent of incurring debt to fund megalomania famously broke statesmen as big as Churchill and Lincoln.
Despite displaying the pretence of a politician, Mr Chaubey, to be sure, is yet to win an election (the AIFF notwithstanding). On the field, however, all men live for a purpose bigger than themselves, and had Manvir had faith in his abilities and not seen the name on the back of the player wearing Brazil’s number four jersey, Indian football’s future would now be written not by a five-time world champion at the nadir of its power, but by an emerging force that does not know the meaning of a word called fear.
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Cover image courtesy: AIFF
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