As the Indian Super League opens its 10th season on Thursday, with the Southern derby between Kerala Blasters and Bengaluru FC in Kochi, some 9000km away an under-prepared Indian team will be desperately working out strategies for its crucial Asian Games league match against Bangladesh the same evening at Xiaoshan, China.
With many of the ISL clubs reluctant to send their top players for the Asiad as the event fell outside the FIFA international window, confusion prevailed over the last few weeks with changes happening frequently. So much so, the National coach Igor Stimac was not sure who would finally be in his team even some five days before the squad’s departure to China.
In the end, with some late additions including defender Sandesh Jhingan, the team made a last-minute dash to China. Exhausted after a long travel and without a single training session, the team suffered a 5-1 thrashing against the host in its Asiad opener in Hangzhou on Tuesday.
