Fans’ belief reawakened

Football has always been closer to the hearts of fans than any other sport in Bangladesh.

Perhaps many will not buy this eulogy at a time when cricket is head and shoulders ahead in terms of popularity and success on the international front.

It might also sound like an effort from a football romantic to draw a comparison, one that may be partly true but is not necessarily embedded in the new generation of fans who have grown up watching the country’s football in the sick-bed, unaware of what it actually meant to their fathers and grandfathers.

So, when a youthful Bangladesh side ground out a 1-1 draw against India at the Salt Lake Stadium on Tuesday night in a 2022 World Cup qualifying game, it touched upon the heart and minds of fathers more than offspring.

It was a contest of two also-ran teams that have never made it to the World Cup proper. Still, this particular battle meant a lot to the fans of the two neighboring nations because of its long history of emotional rivalry.

The match meant a lot to India, who have been striving for the last few years to make the statement that they no longer belong to the lower caste of Asian football. In a far better position in the FIFA rankings compared to Bangladesh and after a creditable away draw to 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar, India were thinking of a maximum three points at the iconic venue in front of a 60-thousand plus home crowd.

It was a first meeting between the two sides since 2014 and Bangladesh had lurched from bad to worse since that drawn encounter. The men in red and green reached their nadir in 2016, when they suffered a 3-1 defeat to Bhutan in the Asian Cup 2019 Qualifiers play-off.

That defeat on that October night in Thimphu was so devastating that many passionate football followers, who had grown up watching the game as a daily dose of entertainment from the mid-70s to the early 90s, temporarily resigned from keeping track of what was happening on the domestic football front. An exception was only made to keep an eye on the progress of the women’s football team.

The build-up to India game was still not inviting enough to excite fans, despite the fact that this young side, under the stewardship of English coach Jamie Day, were doing well -- winning the crucial play-off against Laos 1-0. They had also done well in their first two World Cup Qualifiers against Afghanistan and Qatar.

They lost 1-0 against Afghanistan in Dushanbe and suffered a 2-0 defeat against Qatar on a rain-soaked turf at the Bangabandhu National Stadium but they fought hard to make an impression. More importantly, they looked like a team quite capable of playing the proper football that the modern-day game demands and possessed a hunger to learn.

Still, to make an impression against India in their own den was a tough task for Bangladesh, who have never won a game on Indian soil.

But after 90-plus minutes of a pulsating game, it was the vibrant Bangladesh side that reinjected that forgotten belief among their loyal fans: they can play football, they can entertain and they can take the fight to the opposition till the end.

Some might say Bangladesh’s failure to hold their nerve in the final moments cost them a late equaliser. But this does not reflect the bigger picture of a game where this young side withstood the pressure of the home side and the vocal support of a partisan capacity crowd, baying for blood; something they have never experienced before.

India might have enjoyed more possession, but Bangladesh were tactically the better side.

The result is the first firm step for a Bangladesh side on the redemption trail. If they can keep playing like this -- irrespective of a win or loss -- they can feel the beat of the fans louder and louder, reminiscent of that glorious past.