IITH FC - Believe! ( Part 1 )

There are some flashes of memories that just pop up in your mind when you try to sleep and you suddenly start smiling- you feel the adrenaline being pumped in your blood. Well it’s been a long time since I finally gathered the energy to add a new story to this blog, but believe me it’s the best story of my Football life. It’s a story of an underdog beating the odds with nothing but a will to succeed –classic David vs Goliath!  It’s the story of IITH FC – BELIEVE!

It was the winter of 2011, we had put together a great team and the fitness levels could not have been higher. Our coach was clearly determined that no one would miss even a single practice session ( I had already written how grueling the practice sessions might be sometimes) during the first 2 weeks of december. We had never won a single match in INTER IIT till then and not scored a single goal. So we had a good team with high spirits but still the task set before was a daunting uphill task!. We had in fact drew one match against IIT Guwahati the year before (Inter IIT 2010 – it was another story altogether-coming soon!). It was the last chance for my seniors to give it all as they were in their final year.  We decided even if we weren’t to win, we’ll give the opponents a tough ride. There were two older IITs (IIT-Roorkee and Guwahati – both highly skilled tough teams ) and IIT Bhuvaneshwar in our pool.

So we packed our bags and boarded the train to IIT Kharagpur . The stage was set and there was huge pressure on us. The weather conditions were much better (more like our own campus) than in IIT Delhi. Our first match was against IIT Guwahati, they had already lost their first match against Roorkee 2-0. We had closely watched that match and we had our plans laid out. The Guwahati team is technically good team at passing but they never utilize the wings. Hence we had to open up their wings to break their defense and close up our defense to stop their attack. It was pretty simple really.

I thought I would not start the match but the coach gave me the green signal and I was in the starting eleven .( I played Right back). Our defense line was great and we had a unbeatable Goal keeper ( Paki ) in our line up so we were ready for Guwahati ). It was my first match in which I was in the playing eleven. I was very nervous cause I felt I was the weak link in the defense.  The match was intense and our gameplay was tested to the limits. We matched the Guwahati team in speed, strength and stamina. In fact I felt we were a little bit better in terms of speed. Both of our strikers were extremely fast and even though they were freshmen they played like pros in that game.  In the end the Guwahati team could’nt break through our defense and the match was a 0-0 draw. They were shocked and a little attention was on IIT H because we drew against the old IIT not once but twice.

The second match was with Roorkee . They didn’t even show up in our match against Guwahati, mainly because they were confident that they can beat us easily (boy they were wrong ! ). We know their gameplay – they used the width of the pitch to the full extent and they were extremely fast ( like the now Bayern Munich ) and their left out was a tough cookie ( he was kinda like Marcelo) . The coach warned me before the match about that guy’s tactic wherein he gives a fake and brings the ball inside towards the goal. Even though I knew what I had to do to stop him I had huge pressure on me as all the seniors told that it’s all up to me now!  The match started with crazy pace and they firing balls from every angle possible. Fortunately we had an awesome Goalie so no problems. The tested our wing backs with a few attacks from the left flank and found that we had cannon for a leftback ( Carlos! ) and all those attacks were in vain as the ball was launched every time into their half. So what’s left now! – They started developing all their attacks from left flank towards me (those bas***ds).  I had to be tough, even a slight sign of weakness could mean a goal. My heart was thumping my ribs every time their left out got the ball and every time instead of crossing the ball he decided to dribble towards me and every time I had some part of my leg on the ball and made sure it went to throw in or a corner. But a funny thing was happening to me.  After each tackle that I made I was gaining huge amount of confidence. Then I found out that at each passing minute not only me but my whole team was gaining confidence and our gameplay started to improve dramatically. We started to create chances but the roorkee defense was not an easy one to break-in.  After every attack we had to face a speedy counter attack as we neared the end of the game. I was totally exhausted and my legs refused to move. I didn't know what to do!...           ( Scroll Down for Part -2 )