The Indian football team will resume play on Saturday when they play Singapore in a three-nation friendly tournament in Ho Chi Minh City. This comes after months of federation politics, accusations and denials, uncertainty regarding the chief coach’s future, and the potential of becoming an international pariah.
Indian football makes its comeback versus Singapore
Given the events within the All India Football Federation since May, off-field issues have received most of the attention in Indian football. However, with a new organisation in place and the technical committee renewing the contract of head coach Igor Stimac to the conclusion of the Asian Cup, India may now begin its training for the regional championship the following year.But it starts out in a less than perfect circumstance.
India enters the match against Singapore slightly undercooked despite the fact that the majority of the players have had a full preseason with their clubs. Before leaving for Vietnam, they only had one full training session under Stimac. Sandesh Jhingan and Chinglensana Singh, two of their defensemen, are unlikely to be available for selection against Singapore, which only compounds their difficulties.
Due to problems with their travel documents, the two did not travel with the team and instead left on a separate flight on Friday at 3 am. Key center-back Jhingan, who helped his nation to the 2019 Asian Cup quarterfinals, is likely to be rested on Saturday and start against Vietnam on Tuesday.
The last time India played Singapore was ten years ago. Although Stimac was confident that India would win, he was cautious and emphasised the improvements that the South East Asian team has made recently.
India won’t play for the first time since their brilliant run in the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers in June, where they competed in three games and concluded with a perfect winning record.
India’s next match against Vietnam will prove to be a difficult contest and demonstrate how far the squad has advanced in the last three years under Stimac, even though Singapore is an opponent that India will be expected to defeat.
Playing on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. ET on Eurosport is India vs. Singapore.
