The Golden Boot

Triumph and Trauma of a Coach
M. K. Kaushik with K. Arumugam

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Heart-Breaking Tie-Break				Negi went up to Ballal and asked him if he can do the job. Ballal shot back, "I can do it. I will go in. Why do you not have confidence in me?" I turned to Subbaiah and told him, "Let Ballal play." Subbaiah wished him well. For more than a decade, the duo of Ballal and Subbaiah, who speak the same language and who hail from the same city, were playing together. They were mutually competitive, but today Subbaiah was all poise and grace.
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t was a tense time for us on the bench - we had to choose the shooters for the tie-break, and also choose between Ballal and Subbaiah.

I selected Ramandeep Singh, Mohammad Riaz, Baljeet Singh Dhillon, Dhanraj Pillai and Mukesh Kumar as my first choice lineup for the all-important job. Sameer Dad, Thirumala Valavan and Sandeep Somesh were to be my reserves. They were to take shots in that order. I selected this lineup based on their consistent performance in the camps.

Soon I faced a dilemma. Captain Dhanraj was unwilling to take the stroke. I could have prevailed upon him to take the stroke, but I did not do so. He has always been a temperamental person. Forcing him to do something he did not like might yield a negative result. Further, he was overworked in the final, and might have been tired too.

Dhanraj's reluctance forced me to change the order. Mukesh would now shoot the fourth stroke, and Sameer Dad would shoot in place of Dhanraj. Sameer was overawed by the occasion initially, but was raring to go once assigned the job.

Sensing my flexibility, another senior player Riaz said that he had pain. I was not to be bullied now. I told him bluntly, "Missing is my problem. Don't worry, go ahead." I did not entertain any other pleas from the players. Where was the time? We had only five minutes to decide our lineup.

Now came the all-important question of selecting the goalkeeper. Should I assign Ballal, who had played the full match lasting 85 minutes, or Subbaiah, who was not substituted in the match even for a minute. Would not Ballal be tired? Would not Subbaiah be bodily slack? Even before extra-time was over, I had asked Subbaiah to start warming up, in case the game went into a tie-breaker.

However, Ballal was in his element that day. He was seeing the ball very well. He was confidence personified. We had reached this stage solely due to Ballal's performance under the bar.

I elicited the view of captain Dhanraj Pillai. He said, "Ballal is playing well. Send him in." Other players who listened to our discussion nodded their approval.

M. R. Negi went up to Ballal and asked him if he can do the job. Ballal shot back, "I can do it. I will go in. Why do you all not have confidence in me?"

I asked Ballal to warm up and go ahead. I turned to Subbaiah and told him, "Let Ballal play." Subbaiah wished him well. There was no heartburn from him. Anybody else would have created a scene at this abrupt, though calculated, change in decision.

For more than a decade, the duo of Ballal and Subbaiah, who speak the same language and who hail from the same city, were playing together. They were mutually competitive, and I found that their calibre improved when they were pitted against each other. I was elated that Subbaiah sportingly agreed to let Ballal go ahead. He was all poise and grace.

We had done our homework for the possibility of a tie-breaker. We had studied the video recording of the Australia-South Korea match in the 1998 Champions Trophy. That match witnessed not only a tie-break, but a long drawn out sudden death phase too. In all, each side had taken eight strokes. We coaches, goalkeepers and players had repeatedly dissected this video. The image of how the Korean goalkeeper would respond to every type of push was ensconsed in our mind.

When Ballal, five penalty stroke takers and manager Malik stepped onto the ground from the pavilion, I told Ballal to remember our video sessions. Myself and Negi, himself an acclaimed goalkeeper of yore, did not specify the type of push our players should adopt. We left it to their discretion and common sense. I told the boys, "We want a win, win, win."

The whole stadium was in pin drop silence. Both Yeo Woon-Kon and Ramandeep Singh converted the first strokes. Then, Ballal dove to his right like a torpedo and pushed away the second stroke by Yoo Moon-Ki, while Mohammad Riaz converted our second. The Indian supporters roared thunderously.

The third flicks of both India and Korea went in, with Baljeet Singh Dhillon slotting in the third stroke for India. Ballal again blocked the fourth stroke by Jeong Jing-Dong. It was time for Mukesh Kumar to take the fourth stroke for India.

I had been cocksure of the first three strokes. If at all, I harboured a tinge of doubt with Mukesh. However, as Mukesh's stroke went inside the cage, hard and low to the goalkeeper's left, the stadium errupted in ecstacy. Usually unexpressive Mukesh made a memorable leap frog and yelled. I saw Sameer Dad, who was very close to Mukesh, jump on him. Ballal was the most sought after. I don't know how many of us pounced on him. Thank God, he had a solid physique to bear our load.

For 32 years, since Balbir Singh scored that magnificent goal in 1966 at the same venue against Pakistan, India has been chasing this golden dream. We were now Asian champions again! It was the most sentimental and emotional of all the gold medals that India won in Bangkok.

India are the Asian Games Champion!
Photograph Courtesy India Today