GUWAHATI: Perhaps, the worst thing about India’s new-found status as a lower-mid-table Asian team is the misplaced sense of hope that their matches bring. How many harsh lessons have been taught, if not learnt, over the last one year? How many times have fans got off their seats in anticipation of deliverance only to be pushed right back into it and told to keep their heads down?
Against UAE at the Asian Cup, they took everybody’s breath away in the first half-an-hour before the hosts punished their inability to score. Against Bahrain, they came within minutes of qualifying for the knockouts, only for their rivals to take advantage of tired legs.
On Thursday, they came within eight minutes of a win in their opening 2022 World Cup qualifier against Oman, and within a few seconds of taking home a point. Yet when the referee called time, it was the Indians whose tears were mixed with the sweat that humid Guwahati had forced out of them. All they, and the more than 20,000 fans who had thronged the stands, had to take home was a 1-2 loss.
Frustrated for most of the match chasing the game, Oman timed their knockout punches well. The first, in the 82nd minute, came from a long ball from midfield that Al-Mandhar Al Alawi somehow managed to get a toe to.
The onrushing Gurpreet Singh Sandhu must have felt an eternity passing as he watched the ball loop over his head. The same player delivered the knockout punch just as the referee was about to signal the start of injury-time, dribbling past two and finding the net with a strong shot.
The despair that Oman’s winner brought made all the euphoria that had enveloped the stadium seem like a distant memory. Yet it was only an hour before that Guwahati was bouncing to the music created by India’s attackers.
Attack after attack, chance after chance — a spell where India could do little wrong. Ashique Kuruniyan, playing his first India match since the Asian Cup, was a handful in the first half-an-hour while Anirudh Thapa, Rowllin Borges and Brandon Fernandes were winning the battles in the midfield. Sandesh Jhingan nearly headed a corner in, while Udanta Singh’s 15th-minute shot hit the underside of the bar and bounced clear. An Indian goal seemed only a matter of time.
Then, Abdulaziz Al Gheilani, the left-back that Ashique had tormented, exacted vengeance by hacking him down on the edge of the box. The resulting free-kick was a routine that Igor Stimac must have made the team practice many times over. Brandon fooled everyone waiting inside the box for a high ball and squared it to Sunil Chhetri, who by now had got into position to rifle one in to the far-right corner. India had their lead. The question was, could they hold on to it.
A few years ago, the answer to that question would have come in a few minutes. But not in this phase where India are not that far from teams like Oman, but not quite there yet. Till the very end, they held the fort, frustrating their opponents with disciplined defending and some flying stops from Gurpreet, though questionably ceding control of the midfield. Agony, though, was inevitable.