BENGALURU: It has not been the best AFC Asian Cup 2023 for Igor Stimac and his team. Their 2-0 defeat against Australia saw them display spirit. But that result and the thrashing by Uzbekistan showed just how tough it was going to be to bridge the gap between India and Asia’s best. The Blue Tigers will now face Syria in their final group game at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor on Tuesday, no doubt hoping to salvage a happy memory from a tournament that has not even seen them score a goal.
Ever since the groups for this tournament were drawn, Syria’s name stood out as one of the more realistic teams for India to get a result against. After all, they were ranked in the 90s, not too far away from India’s own FIFA rankings. The Blue Tigers do have a good record against them in the recent past, holding them to a draw in the Intercontinental Cup four years ago.
However, a comparison of how both teams have fared in the ongoing Asian Cup hints that the similarity in ranking might be an aberration. Syria held the Uzbekistan team that cut through India at will to a goalless draw and only went down 0-1 to Australia. Their tactics have been pretty similar to India — cede the ball but frustrate the opposition by putting people behind it. But their physicality and the fact that they did not make errors at crucial junctures of the game meant they fared much better at it.
On Tuesday, both teams will need a win. Four of the six third-place teams will qualify for the knockout rounds and a win will put Syria in the frame to do just that. If they win big against India and Uzbekistan lose to Australia by a couple of goals, they could even finish second. For India, their poor goal difference and the fact that they can only have a maximum of three points make the odds longer. But it is still mathematically possible.
The other thing that both teams will be looking to do is score. Neither have had a goal in this tournament so far — Syria have had just a single shot on target in the two matches they have played. India did come close to scoring against Uzbekistan a couple of times but that came at the cost of sacrificing a defensive approach, something Syria is yet to do in this tournament.
A good result for India will go a long way in quelling the backlash that has sprouted back at home among fans. “We will try to keep playing our football,” Stimac said in the pre-match press conference. “We have worked on changes in mindset and our philosophy. Defeats are a part of the process, but our strength needs to be to bounce back from it.”
One thing Stimac has going for him is that he will have a full roster to call on, even Sahal Abdul Samad who missed the previous two games due to injury. And India will need him to come in at his creative best. The last and only time India have failed to score a single goal at the Asian Cup was forty years ago, in 1984. Not repeating that will be number one on Stimac’s to-do list.