SpeakOut: USA Gives India A Footballing Lesson - Fans' Reactions

Munna from the USA underlines the basic differences between India and the USA in terms of footballing infrastructure, "A very good article Mr Mondal. But there is a very big difference between USA and India. In USA, although soccer is not big, there are people who look at sports in general as a career as that gives them scholarships in universities and a jumpstart to their career. I live in USA at a town of population 12000. We have a soccer stadium with turf, floodlights, excellent drainage, dressing rooms and academy facilities for kids of high school. Look at Mumbai- cooperage ground for a city of 16 million."

goalkelkar from USA/Mumbai agrees with Munna and adds, "The USA system is showing drastic improvement, I guess India can only try and emulate them. Though a large overhaul needs to take place in India. but look at things like the residency program in the US which all but shows the all round development of players. Though soccer is no popular in the US an effort is made into promoting talent. Freakin India has a huge pool of talent and promises of academies being built are just made for the sake of it."

Footballista from DFB laments that simply writing about such issues won't help, "My guess is that after they read this article, almost all the Indians will go back to checking the India-West Indies ODI cricket score and forget all about the soccer issue at hand. General apathy and corruption right down to the grass-root levels has made India into a sporting mess! Did you ever wonder why Sharad Pawar took over BCCI and not IHF (hockey)or AIFF (football)? not cuz of his immense knowledge in cricket I am sure.."

Vikram from the US points out, "I think one thing that the US has done very successfully is to leverage its existing sports network (strong high school and university sports programs) to advance soccer in the country. Soccer has become an extremely popular game in high school and the best players then get recruited to play for university. In addition, they have carefully constructed the domestic league MLS as a viable career choice after university athletics and have shown great openness to their best players going to Europe."

Subhankar Mondal