Bob The Builder : Engineering Another Win For India!!!

Well, Not many of you India-born-Spain-Fanatics know (new term i made for people who have absolutely nothing to do with the Iberian peninsula , yet who religiously follow the Spanish national team as if their life depended on Spain winning) but let me break this "inconsequential" piece of news to you , that India thrashed Tajikistan to win the AFC Challenge Cup 2008 yesterday. We also qualified directly for the AFC Asian Cup 2011 as AFC Challenge Cup champions.

If questions that come to your mind are: is this achievement is big enough? we didn't really beat Korea did we?? Well I'd say yes it was a big deal because it can mean the ressurgence of our team and No to the second question because .. well, we didn't face them.

Looking at the larger picture, it puts us in the elite group of Asian football, which should push us on the world's footballing map and open the doors for our boys to play abroad.

Most of the members of our victorious team credited this win to one Robert Douglas Houghton or Bob Houghton , which is the name some of us should be familiar with..

Bob , I would say single handedly turned the fortunes of our fledgling team , winning us as many as 3 tournaments in his tenure. Now people like me who have followed our team through the good times and the not so good times , would notice the biggest change in our team ( No, not Sunil Chetri) but the mindset of the team . I would say that we used to give the opposition too much respect by falling back and defending 90 minutes. Now , our attackers have the hunger for goals and that can be proven by the number of goals we have scored in his tenure. Our U-16 team which destroyed the likes of Saudi Arabia to get into the AFC U-16 Championship is a feat in itself.By the way, this team has also beaten the VFB-Stuttgart U-16 team in Stuttgart 3-2.
With that lot coming of age and guru Houghton's tutelage , I don't see why we cannot make a splash in the AFC Asian cup in 2011.

Now for the more serious and for me the more incomprehendible part ... Why does Manchester United have more fans in India than the UK??
do most of their desi fans even have ANYTHING to do with Manchester???

Well , I guess most of us are just WANNABE (S)... We follow it because it's cool and it's the "In Thing".. People in India pray that Argentina wins and don't know if India is even playing. Ridiculous.

We all blame the media...well, the media isn't really the saviour of Indian sports..they'll show what sells...As long as there isn't a change in mindsets of our desi Real Madrid "fans"....nothing and i mean " NOTHING WILL CHANGE"..

As they say here in India "Umeed Pe Duniya Kaayam hai" (The world lives on hope)... I hope the people cheer Indian teams other than the cricket one.

Thank you Bob, Baichung ,Sunil and the team.