Bibhash Lodh, BS News Agency: The Indian football team's performance against world-renowned teams at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru is quite good. The statistics say so. And the proof of that is the Indian team's impressive 1-1 draw with Panama, which is currently ranked 44th in the FIFA rankings. The courageous attitude with which the Indian team's footballers including Gurpreet, Ryan Williams, Anwar played in the FIFA international friendly match is not only commendable, but they could have also won the match. In that case, a new history would have been written.
Nevertheless, it must be said that the dominance that the Khalid Jamil-trained Indian team showed in the match, despite being 94 places behind Panama, made up for the difference in the FIFA rankings. On the contrary, India never felt that it was far behind in the rankings. Panama played in the main stage of the 2018 and 2026 World Cups. It was quite a difficult task to compete with them on equal terms. Even after the Indian footballers played winnable football and drew, some critics have tried to say, did Panama field their full strength, i.e., the first-class team? That is, did they field the footballers of the team that played in the 2026 FIFA World Cup against India? Or did the Panama coach want to test their skills by fielding new players against India?
This is our big problem. Even though the Indian football team plays well, we express doubts about their skills and abilities, instead of praising them openly. Rather, we sit down to find the flaws and deficiencies of the Indian football team. We try to belittle the achievements of the Indian team. However, Indian coach Khalid Jamil or his footballers are not listening to these things. They are not even thinking about them. Coach Khalid has reached Kolkata with the team. All his focus and that of the team's footballers is now on the Brazil match. India will face five-time World Cup winners Brazil, ranked 5th in the FIFA rankings, on October 3 at Yuva Bharati. Brazil's chief coach Carles Ancelotti is coming with a full-strength team. There are a bunch of World Cup players in the team, including Vinicius Junior. Brazil coach Ancelotti, who played two FIFA international matches with Australia, will finish the task of preparing the team before playing against India. Naturally, the Brazil match is much more challenging than Panama, according to one of the Indian team's trusted goalkeepers Gurpreet and Ryan Williams, the goal scorer in the Panama match. However, the two footballers are unwilling to suffer from inferiority complex before facing Brazil. Like Ryan Williams, ' Before the Panama match, coach Khalid Jamil had instructed us to play our normal football without being closed in. Combining attack and defense. We did not give Panama a chance to sit on our necks by relying on that strategy of balanced football. We played positive football. We tried to keep more ball at our feet. We took advantage of the opportunity and attacked Panama. It paid off. We also scored a goal and went ahead. We conceded a sudden goal in the 68th minute. Of course, I will give more credit to Panama's goal scorer, Omak Valencia, than to our mistakes. It was not possible for our defenders or goalkeeper to understand that Omar would score a goal with a sudden shot from such a distance. We got more opportunities to score goals. If we had used it, we could have won the match. This confidence will undoubtedly be useful before facing Brazil. You can say, it gives us extra courage to fight against a team like Brazil.'
After the Panama match, those who were in the first eleven spent the next day in the gym. The rest practiced in full swing on the field under the supervision of coach Khalid. The Indian team footballers arrived in Kolkata on Monday. Khalid will start preparing for the Brazil match on Tuesday and the Uruguay match on October 6. Needless to say, the one who can be seen busy the most in the matches against Brazil and Uruguay is the Indian team's goalkeeper Gurpreet. However, he is not worried about that. According to him, 'There is a rhythm to playing football. It has been matched by Panama. Now we have several days before the Brazil match. I am going to face the toughest opponent of my life on October 3 at the Yuva Bharati ground in Kolkata. So the challenge is very big, much more than Panama, but before entering the field, I am not cowering in fear, I am not accepting defeat, but rather I will face the Brazilian team with a professional attitude of giving a good game. Before playing against Panama, many did not think that we would dominate them. In fact, many things can happen on the day of the match. Everything is possible in football. I am optimistic. We will all be ready to give our best against Brazil. I do not agree to worry about what Brazil can do from now on. Rather, I will think about how much trouble we can cause Brazil with counterattacks. We have to keep a cool head and keep an eye on Brazil's strengths and keep ourselves ready, so that the honor of the country and Indian football will be saved.
Brazil coach Ancelotti has already slammed India for not having a football culture. This has really irritated Indian team coach Khalid. He has countered that it doesn't matter what the Brazil coach says. The game will be played on the field, not in the mouth. It is Khalid's turn to respond and prove it by fighting against Brazil.