India vs Afghanistan: Insipid Asian Cup in the past, Igor Stimac puts heavy emphasis on World Cup qualifiers
A World Cup qualifier Round 2 match against Afghanistan may not come across as the proverbial barn burner for the Indian national football team. However, the heavy load of expectations attached to this match, and the other World Cup qualifiers, by coach Igor Stimac, is what makes this clash in the neutral venue of Abha, Saudi Arabia such a peculiar game in the context of Indian football.
Heavy sacrifices have been made for these World Cup qualifiers. The Asian Cup, the biggest tournament that the Indian team can possibly qualify for, was waylaid and persistently ignored by Stimac over this previous year. In fact, it was a press conference after the 0-3 World Cup qualifier loss to Qatar where the Croatian infamously stated that since he knew that the national team would not get the time of four weeks that was required for a camp, he was effectively ignoring the tournament. In that same conference, he proclaimed that the magical land for Indian football would be the third round of the World Cup qualifiers.
While the country has never qualified for the third round of the WCQ, it’s the strata of opposition and quality at that level that has become the de facto call to action for the national team. Finish in the top two of their group of Qatar, Kuwait and Afghanistan, and ten games against good quality Asian opposition suddenly sounds like a much better return on investment than a three-game run at the Asian Cup that could have, at best, led to a timid Round-of-16 exit.
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