NEW DELHI: It's been barely a day since Jeakson Singh scored one of the most important goals Indian football has ever had. A goal that took India's U-17 team to within seven minutes of holding Colombia — a country that has produced the likes of Carlos Valderrama and James Rodriguez and a team that reached the final eight of the 2014 World Cup. It was a performance that even some of the visiting international journalists felt was deserving of a draw.
While social media went euphoric over the team's performance, the boys themselves were inconsolable after the game. Coach Luis Norton de Matos was seen consoling a few of them. It is understood that there were quite a few tears shed after they reached the team hotel. For the boys, the missed opportunity to get a point meant more than the goal or the performance.
The goalscorer himself — Jeakson Singh — has received more attention in one day than any other Indian footballer has in recent times. There was a mini bust-up in the mixed zone after the game when he walked past without offering comments on the goal. His parents, former coach, former teammates were all hounded for comments. And then, on Tuesday evening, when he finally turned up for an interaction, there was an army of journalists and television cameras waiting.
Ironically Jeakson was not even supposed to be where he was, for the goal. The plan for when India got corners was that Anwar Ali would go to the near post and Jeakson would go to the far post. "Ali was supposed to go to the first post," Jeakson said. "I was supposed to go to the second post. He told me that you go to the first post and I'll go the other way. Even I had an instinctive feeling that the ball would come to me. So as soon as Sanjeev hit the corner, I ran forward and lost my marker."
Jeakson only came into the Indian setup after De Matos took over. While his mates at the Chandigarh Football Academy went into Adam's team, Jeakson joined Minerva Punjab FC to polish his skills. "I changed a lot in my game there," he said. "At CFA, we received the basic training. But once I went to Minerva, I got to train with the senior team, interact with the players there and learn a lot from them. I learnt what is expected of me in the midfield and won the U-16 I-League twice with Minerva."
And while he admits the entire team was disappointed at not being able to draw the match, Jeakson is adamant that they will learn from their mistakes. "They were all congratulating me," he said. "But we were all disappointed that we did not get the result we needed. We are all frustrated that we have not managed one positive result so far.
We were all very happy when we scored the goal, but then we conceded within seconds and we were all down. That was our mistake but we have learnt from it. We will do better in the next match."