Monday, July 20, 2015

Football's Glory


Indian Football’s glorious period.

The photo is of the Indian Football team which won Gold at the Jakarta Asia games 1962. India defeated South Korea 2-1 in a thrilling final. Indian team consists of legends like Peter Thangaraj, Balram, P K Banerjee, Arun Ghosh, Arumai Nayagam, Chuni Goswami, Jarnail Singh, Ethiraj, Yousuf Khan etc. Sixties was the golden era of Indian football. At the 1956 Olympics India finished 4rh, the best ever performance by India. In the 1960 Rome Olympics, India suffered narrow defeats to Hungary and Peru and drew with formidable France 1-1 in a quarterfinal league match, a creditable performance indeed. A big salute to our celebrated footballers.

Legendary coach Syed Abdul Rahim was instrumental in the phenomenal performance of Indian soccer team in two successive Olympics of 1956 and 1960 and in the 1962 Jakarta Asiad. In the Asian Games final against South Korea, Rahim made a tactical master class move by playing defender Jarnail Singh upfront and it clicked and the great Punjabi stopper delivered by scoring a crucial goal. That was Rahim’s last Asian Games and India’s last Asian Games soccer gold. Rahim died in the year 1963. A big salute to the most celebrated soccer coach India has ever produced.


When will be able to see India become Asian Games Champion once again and qualifying for the world cup?

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