Will Beats Skill (Part 1)

There is a saying by Paulo Coelho - " And when you want really something, the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it" in his famous book – The Alchemist. This quote has had a huge impact on me over the past year. There is another quote which I thoroughly believe in – “ Will beats Skill “. Yes, the will to win is the main motivating factor for any Footballer.

Pep talk by Akbar sir before the Match

The preseason for IITH FC was amazing – we thrashed many teams in the local neighborhood 5-0,6-1, 5-1 etc. But still we had miles to go in terms of the level of competition to match INTER IIT level. This time it was in Roorkee – Our last chance to win the championship. The pass outs ( Carlos, Paki , Yatharath , Pramod, Shyamang , Vindy , Chithransh ) from the last year team left a small dent in the team formation, but luckily we had two incredible additions to the team from my batch- SKM and Bolt. As the potential replacement to Yatharth ( Manas) was injured ,hence my coach moved me to center midfield position where I could see more of the ball. The Bronze medal was a huge motivation for the team and hence there was also huge pressure and expectation on the team. So we had to put in even more hard work than in the past years. Since the arrival of flood lights (thanks to Bindu ) we had longer practice sessions every day , sometimes even extending till 8:30 – 9:00 in the night. We even had morning practice sessions three months before INTER IIT – That’s 4-5 hours of practice a day for three whole months - This is not an easy feat to pull off with the added pressure of placements, acads etc. Of course I was enjoying every moment of it and we still had the FC fire in our hearts but we were also nervous as we felt we did not do enough.

So we set sail to Roorkee – the coldest freak place an IIT could have been built. The December in Hyderabad is moderately cold, but the weather in IIT Roorkee is a freak show compared to Hyderabad. We had no clue that it would mind numbingly cold – the average temperature was around 5 degree Celsius. We luckily bought skin tights along with our jersey to protect ourselves during the matches. The field in IIT R was actually small when compared to our ground, so we had a slight advantage in terms of our defense. The teams in our group were IIT Mandi, IIT Indore and IIT Kanpur and we could never underestimate the power of new IITs , so we had to give our best effort to win the matches.

MATCH #1 vs IIT Mandi

This is the team which I would say the second strongest amongst the newer IITs (after us of course! ). We had beaten them in the quarter finals of the last year’s tournament convincingly 3-1 after them taking the lead. This being said the pressure was on us to rip apart Mandi and also since Mandi had the home weather advantage on us . The kick off was at 3:30 in the afternoon, so we had no problem of mist and the weather was fairly warm which suits our playing condition. The match started and we were slightly nervous and were making wrong passes many a time mainly because it was the first time many in the team are playing in this level. But eventually we did get a hang of it and started becoming comfortable. Around the 30th minute we got a corner after a lot of miss chances. The corner was taken by Shyamboy , it was a beautifully crafted corner ( landing just outside the penalty line). Their defenders missed the header and I was standing near the far post waiting for this exact thing to happen and the ball bounced and was at my reach. I toed the ball and it hit the far post and went into the goal. The next few moments were bliss.




The momentary amount of ecstasy I had then was incomparable to anything I had experienced in my life till now. I started running around the ground in joy with my teammates behind me. It took about 10 minutes for me to calm down and it would have taken more time if not for Akbar sir shouting from the dug-out. It was my first goal for me in INTER IIT level – from a five minute send off to an opening goal – it was all flashing in my mind. It took every ounce of will power to get back in game. The game went fairly with us having a majority of the possession. We however made a small defensive blunder which cost us badly and we ended up drawing the match which we easily should have won.

MATCH #2 vs IIT Kanpur



This was the game I was eagerly waiting for – It was revenge time. We would have met in the third place match in IIT Kharagpur if not for their disqualification. So this time I knew it was payback time for the defeats we had in their hands in the first two INTER IITs at Kanpur and Delhi. I also could never ever forget my send off against them in Delhi. Hence I so wanted to beat these guys very badly to find peace for my ego. This time the kick off was at 11:30 and it was damn cold. We didn’t get the chance to warm up properly and we started off on a bad note giving a penalty to them at the 10th minute. Déjà vu – it was happening all over again I thought. They had such low sportsmanship that they started wasting time so early in the match using throw ins and faking injuries (******).

Level of visibility during the match

The following 60 minutes of the game were one of the most fire filled game I saw being played by IITH FC. I could see in each of my team mates eyes” how badly they want to win?”. Kanpur’s defense was a bit inexperienced and fortunately for us we had two of the fastest strikers of INTER IIT ( Navanshu a.k.a Junglee , Anil a.k.a Bolt ).We ripped apart their defense. We were dominating possession and making an attempt at goal every 5 minutes of the match. Eventually their defense had to break down as Anil scored a beautiful chip for a goal. The entire Kanpur team was stunned after the screaming we did after the goal. To be frank they were intimidated by us for the first time. The second half started with us pumped up full of fire. We had to use their weak fullbacks to our advantage and hence we mainly moved the ball from the wings and had to put the ball to the strikers. In the end this worked and we scored two more goals both being scored by Navanshu. Kanpur realized Karma is B*t*h.

MATCH #3 vs IIT Indore

The match against Indore was supposed to be a cake walk and it was. The only glitch was that the match was scheduled at 8:30 in the morning and it was freaking cold and one could not see beyond 20ft because of the mist. But not to worry as we totally outclassed Indore as we were in altogether new level. This match witnessed one of the marveling performances by a striker in IITH – Navanshu- the Hat Trick hero. All of INTER IIT was taking a look at IITH and he eventually became the most feared striker of INTER IIT 2012.

Navanshu

So again we were the group toppers for the second year in a row. The expectations rose but as again challenges rose with it. The Quarter finals were against IIT Kharapur. They were the favorites for winning the tournament- They had a skill level that is one step higher than all the IITs. Till now our defense and goal keeper were never tested to the limits. So there were severe doubts whether we could handle the might of KGP. Seeing their practice sessions one day left us in awe for the team. But we could never stop to Believe – not after Roorkee! 

                                                 Contd......... ( Scroll down for Part 2 )

Will Beats Skill (part 2)

So we went in with full preparation after Akbar sir giving us valuable tips on how to handle KGPs No 7 and No 10. The kick off was at 10:00 am.



We started the match confidently putting in crosses from the wings to test their defense. In the second minute of the match we got a free kick at about ~30 m from the goal. Again Shyam took the free kick and I intuitively started running around their defense line to shake off the man marking me before finally positioning myself near the near post. I could never forget the next twenty seconds of the play. He took the kick and it was beautifully lobbed in just above the wall (I thought he would go for goal) and hit my leg and bounced for a volley near the D-line at almost zero angle to the near post. The next few moments were like slow motion, my eyes lit up seeing the opportunity for a volley and I swung my right leg for a perfect out foot shot. The ball grazed the goal keepers hand and went into the goal (the sweet sound of the nets). This time I was stunned by the situation and managed to do a Thiery Henry kind of celebration telling the audience to be quiet. It was yet another moment of eternal bliss. With the adrenaline running high and by being crushed by the hugs from my teammates – this is my most memorable moment of my FC career. We were leading against IIT KGP at the 3rd minute!!!





Of course we still had miles to go before the end. The KGP team quickly raised the tempo of their game and we entered a total defense mode. I dropped behind to play as a CDM . As I said before the KGP team’s skill level is a class apart and they were attacking from left and right , shots were being taken from all around the field . Our goal keeper was never tested to this kind of attack before. Expectations were lower from him after stepping into the shoes of Paki. But the following hour’s performance he gave for the team demands huge respect (He was almost equal to Paki) – saving at least 20~25 shots. I witnessed one of most hard working defense during the rest of the match. Special Thanks to them (Ravi Kiran – RB , Khalid – CB , Madhu- CB , Subhav- LB )! They were literally drained out of energy after the match. Even I have been drained out - At one point I was literally tackled in the air and was breathless for a minute and the referee had to force me to sit out but I refused and continued playing. The first half ended with us in the lead 1-0.

At the beginning of second half we decided we couldn’t risk the chance conceding by defending heavily so we decide we’ll take a couple of chances and then at the 48th minute we had one lucky counter attack. Navanshu got the ball in the center and gave a beautiful lob-through ball over their high defense line up and Anil made a timely run to get ahead of the defense to have a one on one chance with the goal keeper. Their goal keeper made a huge blunder of advancing and seeing this Anil chipped the ball above the head of the goal keeper (who was outside the D-Line now ) for a goal. It was one of the most beautiful goals I had witnessed. That moment we were sure that the match is ours and that we were knocking out the favorites out of the championship. The numerous attempts of KGP at goal were either blocked by the defense of stopped by the Deepak who was in superlative form. The whole of IITH contigent was present during the match chanting Goomtha lakdi gula gula Hoo Haa Hoo Haa . The whole ground was vibrating at the final blow of the whistle. We did it again; we broke the shackles again to reach the semifinal knocking out the favorites. The KGP team was in tears after the game. I couldn’t believe the result. Will had beat Skill!







Nevertheless this game had taken a heavy toll on us leaving many injuries on many of our players. We gave our best in the semis and 3rd place match losing by a margin of only one goal each. The referees who had initially been against us were full in respect and awe for us and our coach after the tournament. This was a defining moment in IITH FC timeline – we had started to make older IITs fear – we again proved we are no longer a new IIT and finally we proved “ Will beats Skill” .

IITH FC Class of 2013

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