Sensational Start

The 17^th World Cup Soccer Tournament has a sensational start at Seoul. In the inaugural match, defending champions and hot favourites of bookmakers-France- was defeated by debutantes Senegal through a stunning a goal in the 30^th minute of the match. France appeared to be overconfident leaving too many gaps in the defence.   They were also under pressure of defending the title with so much of media hype. Absence of star forward and playmaker Zinadine Zidane also affected their rhythm.

Football is a glorious game and no wonder; it continues to be the most popular game in the world.  Perhaps in no other game, the gap between standard of top team and team playing first time in the first round is so narrow except in football. After all the teams reached the final round after gruelling preliminary matches in which 192 countries contested for the 32 spots. The fact that teams like Holland which produced several world class players like Johan Cryuff, Rijkard, Van Baston etc and finalists for 2 times, could not make it to the final round shows the intensity of the competition.

The defeat of defending champions highlights three cardinal things. 1) Don’t be overconfident 2) Do not under rate your rivals 3) Do not over dependent on any player. In the last world cup over dependence on Ronaldo resulted in the failure of Brazil.

  It is hoped that World Cup will bring lots of excitement and scintillating soccer in the days to come. 

Quest for Quality

Quest for Quality

The just concluded Durand Cup Football Tournament held in the Capital will long be remembered for one thing the dazzling display of IM Vijayan. Such was his spectacular display that he was the saviour of the team on several occasions and single-handedly took the team to the pinnacles of glory.      His scintillating display over shadowed the great performance of many other players of different teams including the foreign players inducted by many top teams. The greatness of Vijayan’s feat can be gauged from the fact that not one of the several footballers of Nigerian origin who are playing for various Indian clubs could match the brilliance of Vijayan.  (Nigeria is the current Olympic Champions).

            Vijayan was born in a poor family and comes from a remote village of the Country. He spent his childhood in abject poverty. Vijayan’s success story should be an eye-opener to our sports administrators who always nurse a grouse for lack of funds and facilities for the poor standard of sports in the Country. It is not the lack of funds or facilities which stand in the way of our progress but lack of dedication, sincerity, team spirit and killer instinct.

            Vijayan is undoubtedly the finest Indian footballer of this decade. He is having an enviable record of being a member of six Federation Cup winning teams. Twice he helped Kerala Police, Mohun Bagan and JCT to win the Federation Cup- the supremacy of Indian Soccer. Football fans have even coined a slogan “Vijayan hai jahan Federation Cup hai wahan.” In spite of all his incredible achievements, he has not been conferred with the Arjuna Award, whereas, many others with unimpressive achievements are Arjuna awardees. Indian Football’s low ranking on World or Asian level cannot be taken as a reason for not conferring Arjuna Award to this talented black pearl.

                We Indians are reluctant to recognise talent in various fields. No wonder talented people leave the country in search of greener pastures. Many of them who left the country in sheer disgust due to lack of recognition and not due to lack of patriotism or greed for money or material comforts.  India is having abundance of talent in various fields. But our administrators, it appears, are unable or unwilling to unearth talent especially from remote areas of the Country. Let our sports selectors and administrators come out of their air-conditioned rooms and search for talent hidden in carious parts of the Country.

            If our sports administrators earnestly start their work right now with devotion, dedication and determination, there is not an iota of doubt that the world’s most populous country (by that time India may overtake China in the field of population) will figure in the medal list in the first Olympics of the 21 century – 3 years from now.

Hats off to Habib and his boys

WELL-DONE BOYS!

            Hats off to Habib’s boys for their superlative performance in the just concluded DCM football tournament at Delhi. They are a bunch of energetic, enthusiastic and dedicated youngsters. TFA boys become the darling of the crowd overnight with their scintillating display and stole the heart of many die-hard football fans. The beauty and artistry of TFA boy’s play even overshadowed the magic of IM Vijayan, the most successful footballers of this decade.

            These teen-agers from Tata football Academy once again dispelled the doubt that there is dearth of sports talent in the country. This is amply demonstrated by many of them playing first time in a major national tournament became giant killers without any big name in their ranks. This is also a testimony of the coaching prowess of Habib.

            Habib a veteran footballer of the yesteryears and now a successful coach of TFA deserve all praise for moulding a crack combination. Habib’s brilliance can be assessed from the fact that after the match between Bengal XI and Cosmos New York few year ago, a person no less than legendary footballers Pele patted Habib for his stellar role in the drawn match. What our jumbo-sized sports organistions could not do for years-unearth and nurture talent-TFA’s coach Habib could do in two years.

            In spite of having good coaches in the country, we are inducting foreign coaches who were unsuccessful in their own countries by paying exorbitant fees. Instead of inducting foreign coaches, we should provide international training and exposure to our own coaches to learn the latest techniques and finer aspects of the game. Indian football reached its nadir during the stewardship of Rustom Akramov, a foreign coach. He committed the biggest blunder by asking Joe Paul Ancheri to play in the Defence. Ancheri is lethal striker and no wonder even now he has the temptation to overlap and assume the role of a forward. However, for us Indians, foreigner’s words are like priest’s sermons and we meekly accepted the blunder.

            The exploits of Tata Football Academy should be an eye-opener to our sports administrators. There is abundance of sports talent in the country and if everybody associated with sports make dedicated efforts, the standard of sports in the country will improve dramatically in the near future.