Victory against Kenya in the Intercontinental Cup Final will give The Blue Tigers much needed boost ahead of their Asia Cup campaign starting next year. A couple of fine strikes by the captain courageous Sunil Chhetri has helped India beat Kenya 2-0 in the final at Mumbai. The Indian skipper took his tally to 64 international goals, as he became the joint second highest goalscorer (with Argentina’s great Lionel Messi) among the active players behind Cristiano Ronaldo, who has scored 81 goals.
Indian football team is doing really well in recent times. Their performance has improved drastically under Stephen Constantine. He has Instil confidence in the players to play their natural game. Constantine brought lots of young talented players to the senior team. Players like Sandesh Jhingan, Pritam Kotal, Udanta Singh, Pranoy Halder are playing consistently for India. India is currently ranked 97th in the world after their stellar show in the Intercontinental Cup it will improve further. AIFF’s decision to let Indian team participate in the Asian Games is a positive move. Even though it is a U-23 competition but they will get to play against stronger opponents. It will definitely help them when these players turn up for the senior side.
There is no doubt that the performance of the Indian side has improved immensely. It seems that goal for this Indian football team is to win the maximum number of matches and keep the winning momentum going, which is a positive sign no doubt. But having said that AIFF must think about the future of Indian football. Most of the success of this Indian team have come against the considerably weaker oppositions. It may look good on record books but in reality, for the growth of Indian football, it is not the ideal scenario.
