India won the Nehru Cup for the second consecutive time by defeating Syria 6-5(1-1) in the penalty shootouts at the Ambedkar Stadium Stadium in New Delhi on Monday. Goal-keeper Subroto Paul, who saved three penalties to become India’s saviour, was awarded the man of the match.
Match was scheduled at 6:30pm in the evening. I kept last time experience in my mind, I, one my colleague & one Dwarka FC teammate reached the stadium around 4:20pm. We had already told our bosses in the morning, not to stop us as we are not going to stop anyway. We pushed-off by 3:00pm to become a part of high profile international match. We sat on the top of the central line from where we could see the best view. People started coming-in and by 5:30pm, stadium got filled in at full capacity of 20,000. People who did not succeed climbed on the walls, toilet roofs, tents, Ferozshah Kotla stadium balconies, trees, stair-case, lamp post etc. Since we were on the top row, I could see around 8000 people were still waiting outside on the main Bahadurshah Zafar marg & Rajghat roads to get in but police were not allowing them. Fans showed their patience for 30-40 minutes but just before the half-time they gave up. They broke the gate no.8 and moved-in like as if lava coming inside. It was almost stampede. So much of enthusiasm that too on a weekday (Monday), seriously AIFF, MCD, Delhi Police, DSA officials and even I would have not thought of.
Anyways, match started right at 6:30pm. Both the teams had something in their mind. India started with an attacking game. India had cleared their intentions in very first minute, when Bhutia had a chance to score but somehow Syrian survived. This made Syria shattered.
Indian captain Baichung Bhutia was handed yellow card in the first half of the game. However, the first half ended without a goal. India were awarded a free kick soon after the commencement of the second half when skipper Bhutia was fouled. But the free kick taken by Steven Dias was stopped by the Syrian goal-keeper.
During 90 minutes, both the teams got equal chances but none of them actually scored and match moved in extra time of another 15-15 minutes halves. In the 114th minute, India were granted a free kick because of a foul committed on Indian captain Baichung Bhutia in the extra-time and Rennedy didn’t let the opportunity & Houghton's faith go waste as his kick swung from right to left to beat the Syrian captain and goalkeeper. Everybody in the stadium started celebrating India's victory as if we have won the world cup. Syrian had just 6 minutes to survive and they proved themselves once again why they are up by 65 FIFA rankings. Syria scored the equaliser in the very last minute (119th) to dash India’s hopes and the final went into penalty shootouts. Pin drop silence spread all over the stadium. Those (including me) who were once celebrating, started cursing indian defence abusively. Fans started praying irrespective of religion.
In the penalty shootouts, Climax scored the first goal for India in the penalty. Rennedy took the second penalty and missed as he hit the pole. (Rennedy became Hero to Zero in a span of 10 minutes). India goal-keeper Subarata Paul revived the home team’s hopes as he stopped the second penalty diving to his left. Sunil Chhetri again gave India the lead by scoring in the third penalty. Again Indian goal-keeper stopped the Syrian penalty to retain the lead. Mehraj missed the penalty would have given India the title. Syria again levelled again by scoring in the fourth penalty. Sukumar Singh again scored to give India the lead. And, finally when Subarata saved third penalty, everybody jumped over the grills and rushed into the ground to hug our hero Subarata Paul, Bhutia & other teammates. In my entire life, i had never seen such craze for indian football. I literally fell into tears.
I started getting congratulating SMS/calls from Preeti, Vinod, Gaurav, Amit, Anurag, Shikha and my Dwarka FC team mates, that made me more emotional ;-)
I wish I could have chance to meet my ideal Sunil Chhetri (jersey # 11) once. But the way our Delhi police chasing & bashing those intruders, I really got scared :P
Later, somehow we managed to jumped inside and had fun same as what a small school kid could do in his school-time days. I clicked pics during presentation ceremony, with Mahesh Gawli, Coach Bob Houghton and others.
I must say, Coach Bob Houghton’s decision to rest key players in the last inconsequential league match against the same opponents paid dividends as the senior players came afresh for the final encounter of the five-nation football tournament. It was a heated, tensed and keenly contested encounter in which the referee had to intervene many times to calm down the players. The heat was not limited to just the players. The Syrian coach Fajer Ebrahim lost his cool in the 60th minute when two off-sides were given against his team in quick succession. He got into an argument with the linesman and that led to India coach Bob Houghton gesturing towards the Syrian camp while pointing his fingers and saying something.
In 89th minute when an off-side was again given against Syria, a frustrated Ebrahim argued with the linesman again. This time Houghton was only staring at him without saying anything. In the extra time, a support staff of Syria was sent off for arguing with the linesman following an ugly incident in which Bhutia was tackled from behind by a Syrian player which led to some pushing and shoving.
Finally "ALL's WELL WHEN ENDS WELL". We had something to celebrate as we were with the winning side.
This win was certainly a tight slap on the face of Syrian Coach 'Fajer Ebrahim' who commented on India that he (Syria) could win against Indian with merely seven players on the field.
LONG LIVE INDIAN FOOTBALL !!!!! Our blessings are always with you !!!
