King's Cup 2023: India stint comes full circle for Igor Stimac as toughest test awaits

Love him or hate him, but you can’t ignore Indian men’s football team coach Igor Stimac. Some may remember him for his red cards on the touchline in the SAFF Championship. Some may be fans of the football the team is playing under his tenure. But one thing is certain, the Croat has successfully managed, with the help of his support staff and players, to put the team at the heart of the national conversations. What happened in Bangalore in July this year, when packed stands welcomed the Blue Tigers to the ground and the whole nation celebrated India’s victory in the SAFF Championship, was a sign of how far the team had come in the last four years. Back inside the top 100 in the FIFA Rankings for the first time since 2018 , there has been a steady rise in how the team plays now. Gone are the days of longball and it has been replaced by ‘Igorball’ — high intensity football with one eye always on the goal. Longball to Igorball: How Stimac transformed Indian football team’s playstyle For Stimac, it all started with the King’s Cup in Thailand in June 2019. Four years down the line and with no clarity on his future, the India stint has come full circle for the 1998 World Cup bronze medallist with his team back in the King’s Cup. “It’s been four years since the last tournament here when we participated and it was a great experience for our young team at the beginning of the start of our work,” Stimac said in Chiang Mai ahead of the 2023 King’s Cup . “We are four years older now. We have a clear picture of our capacities, possibilities, and what India can do and achieve.”

And in the King’s Cup, he faces his toughest test yet: World No. 70 Iraq. Thailand and Lebanon are the other two sides in the tournament with each team playing two matches. Iraq won the Arabian Gulf Cup this year while defeating two of the best sides in the continent — Saudi Arabia and Qatar — on their way to the title. King’s Cup 2023: All you need to know about India’s participation Worth pointing out that India also secured a gritty 0-0 draw against the Asia champions and 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar in 2019, which remains the most famous result for the Blue Tigers under Stimac. But it came so early in the coach’s tenure that it was completely unexpected. Apart from the stature of the opponent, the fact that the Indian fans had little to no expectations is what made the results so celebratory. It’s different now. A considerable amount of progress has been made on both fronts — fitness and playing style. There were no complaints of fitness when India played back-to-back 120 minutes in the SAFF Championship semi-finals and final. Egged on by the home support, the level of football stayed high and aggressive throughout the 90 minutes or 120 minutes in every game as India always looked to keep the ball and use it in an attacking manner.

The aggressiveness clearly helped the Blue Tigers who went on to win the title by beating two West Asian countries in back-to-back matches for the first time. Stimac Interview: ‘India will not change attacking philosophy in Asian Cup’ The challenge now is to sustain that intensity on a consistent basis and away from the comforts of home and support. “We have a very young squad led by three-four senior players who are very positive leaders for us and that’s the path we have taken and we see that India can be successful. Now we need to prove other things that we can be competitive playing away from home and that we can continuously perform with high intensity and progressive football which is very difficult,” Stimac said. The fact that star striker Sunil Chhetri, who recently became a father, is missing from the squad and Lallianzuala Chhangte has a fever is only going to make the challenge even more daunting. “Iraq is a favourite here, but we all came to win the game. Everyone is here to win, obviously, some teams are better with better quality, but nobody knows what will happen in the matches. We have our hopes, we have our challenges and we will do our best,” Stimac said explaining India’s objective for the King’s Cup. And that’s football. India have to be ready for this as the toughest of the tests is still to come. In the AFC Asian Cup in January next year, they will up against Australia (World No. 38), Uzbekistan (74) and Syria (94). The change in the thinking process that they can win is a big positive for India and whatever the result in the end, the most important thing would be how well they fought. LIVE Streaming: India will take on Iraq at 4 PM IST on 7 September. It will be broadcast live on Eurosport and can be live streamed on FIFA+.