India will have to start well against Myanmar if they are to make it out of their qualifying group

On Tuesday evening, when the majority of Indian sports fans will be busy discussing the performance of the country’s cricket team, the national football team will be taking the field at the Thuwunna Stadium in Yangon to lock horns with Myanmar in a fixture that can have far-reaching consequences in the country’s footballing fortunes for the next couple of years.

Having already established their supremacy in the SAFF region, India’s main target now is to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup, to be held in UAE in 2019. Twelve teams have already qualified to the continental championship, while 24 more teams – divided into six groups of four – are fighting for the remaining dozen spots. India (then ranked 129th) had found themselves in the company of Kyrgyzstan (124th), Myanmar (159th) and Macau (184th).

The top two teams from each group qualify to the Asian Cup. With Macau being a minnow, the contest will be confined among Kyrgyzstan, India and Myanmar to clinch the top two spots. India’s record against West and Central Asian countries have been shambolic and given the fact that Kyrgyzstan’s rank undermines their strength, it’s expected to be a two-horse race between India and Myanmar for that second spot from the group.

A six-pointer at stake

In that regard, the opening tie of group can turn out to be a six-pointer, the winner of which will carry a definitive advantage going into the next matches. Under the tutelage of Stephen Constantine, India have had a good twelve months, winning nine of their last 11 matches. However, most of these wins have come either against lower ranked sides or against depleted higher-ranked teams in friendly matches.

In the World Cup qualifiers, Constantine’s men had fared terribly, losing seven of their eight matches to finish rock bottom of the five-member group. The time has come for the British coach to change the trend. India have been lucky to get an easy draw, where they will only have to play a single side that rests above them in the ranking ladder.

India were unconvincing for the majority of their 3-2 win against Cambodia last week and will have to regroup further if they are to earn the bragging rights against the White Angels. Choosing the first XI will be a difficult task for the former Rwanda coach, given a number of his team’s regular starters are either out of form or out of favour at their clubs.

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, who wore the captain’s arm-band against Cambodia, will be starting between the sticks, while Pritam Kotal, despite struggling in the last fixture should keep his place. In the last match, Anas Edathodika and Arnab Mondal had both looked shaky at the heart of the defense and given Myanmar’s 20-year old Aung Thu is known for terrorising defenders with his pace, Constantine may choose to ring in a change in the form of Sandesh Jhingan. Upfront, Jeje Lalpekhlua is expected to get the nod ahead of Daniel Lalhimpuia, while Sunil Chhetri and Robin Singh will also bear the responsibilities of scoring.

No cake walk

Myanmar, though, will be no cake-walk and have a few players who were part of the team that had qualified for the FIFA U-20 World Cup on merit a couple of years ago. Once the power-houses of Asian football, they had finished as runners-up in their only appearance in the Asian Cup way back in 1968.

German coach Gerd Zeise, who has been handed the charge of the senior team after his exemplary success with the youth sides, will be hoping that his protégés will complement the veterans to throw a challenge to the travellers. This set of six matches will have a massive say in deciding how the national team’s immediate future looks like as qualifying for the Asian Cup will mean India will get to play a number of preparatory matches against higher-ranked oppositions while the failure to do so will further tarnish the already grim image of domestic football.

The All India Football Federation has also put this on the top of their priority list at the moment. “I have explained to Stephen several times that his role is to take the national team to the Asian Cup. He should not be looking at anything else,” Kushal Das, the general secretary of the AIFF had told Indian Express last week.

The last time these two teams had met in 2013, Wim Koeverman’s India were beaten by a solitary goal in the AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers. Since then, both the teams have undergone massive changes in squad and personnel. Sunil Chhetri is the only player from that match who will retain his place in Indian starting XI, while for Myanmar, goalkeeper Thiha Sithu, right-back David Htan and captain Yan Aung Kyaw will be the old war-horses.

The Blue Tigers will be starting as favourites in the tie, even though an upset is not out of the equation. “Myanmar are definitely the favourites. To beat them, we have to play very, very well and hope that they don’t play very, very well,” Constantine remarked on Sunday. While this clearly is an exaggeration by the India coach, his troops will have to shrug off their complacency to bring the three points home. The kick-off is at 5pm IST.

Atanu Mitra has been covering Indian football for more than four years. He tweets @Atanu00.