India national football team at the Asian Games
The 1938 Western Asiatic Games, scheduled to be held in Tel Aviv, were cancelled and abandoned with the outbreak of World War II.
[16][17] Guru Dutt Sondhi, chair of the executive committee for the first Asiad, hosted a New Delhi conference on February 25, 1951, where the draw for the 1951 Asian Games was held.
[20] On 5 March 1951, India made its Asian Games football debut against Indonesia with Sailen Manna as captain and Syed Abdul Rahim as coach.
Indian forwards Sheoo Mewalal and Pansanttom Venkatesh pressured the Indonesian defense from the start, however, with good passes by center–half Chandan Singh Rawat.
Mewalal headed the ball past the goalkeeper to give India the lead, the first Indian goal-scorer at the Asian Games.
[a] India forwards Mewalal and Venkatesh continued to impress with their runs, passing, ball control, and shooting, resulting in another 3–0 victory before about 15,000 spectators.
[29][30] Memory of the squad's worst defeat (1–10 against Yugoslavia at the 1952 Olympics) was still fresh, although they had won the 1953 Colombo Cup a few months earlier.
Indonesia forwards Djamiat Dhalhar and Andi Ramang scored a brace, giving India an early exit from the tournament.
Phwa Sian Liong finished off a solo run to score Indonesia's fourth (and final) goal in the 88th minute.
[38] The Ministry of Finance nearly pruned the football team from the Indian contingent for the 1962 Asian Games as an austerity measure.
[50] After Balaidas Chatterjee and T. Shome failed to give India a medal in the previous two outings, Syed Abdul Rahim was again given responsibility for the team in the 1962 Asiad.
[51][52] Rahim (who had cancer) had the best possible forward line of P. K. Banerjee, Chuni Goswami, Tulsidas Balaram, who became known as the "golden trio of Indian football".
In the early minutes, Indian forward Goswami failed to convert several chances when Balaram passed him the ball at the goalmouth.
During the first half, Japanese forward Saburō Kawabuchi and midfielder Shozo Tsugitani troubled defender Chandrasekhar Menon and goal-keeper Barman several times.
Rahim used a 3–2–5 formation and made two changes; Prasanta Sinha replaced injured Ram Bahadur, and Jarnail Singh was brought in.
India's golden trio began attacking from the start; their first goal was in the 13th minute, when inside-left Goswami scored from a pass from left winger Balaram.
Inside–right Do Thol Vinh shot several times before finding success in the 64th minute, when he flicked a ball into the net after a melee with the Indian defenders.
It is considered the greatest achievement of the Indian national team, which overcame participation uncertainties, a hostile host, injury, and the defending Asian champion South Korea.
With Rahim's untimely death and the early retirement of Goswami and Balaram, however, they were not the 1966 Asiad favorites despite their status as defending champions.
India was drawn in a difficult group with Iran, Japan and Malaysia, playing for coach Mohammed Hussain and captained by Jarnail Singh.
The games were originally scheduled to take place in Islamabad, Pakistan, but nine months before they began they were moved to Bangkok.
The squad were two goals down by the 21st minute before forward Subhash Bhowmick scored a brace to equalize and barely missed a match-winning hat trick.
They dominated the first match 3–0 against Indonesia on 15 December, with Doraiswamy Nataraj, Rajvi and Shyam Thapa scoring a goal apiece.
India lost the 17 December match against Japan when forward Takeo Kimura scored the lone Japanese goal in the 88th minute.
Burmese striker Ye Nyunt scored a brace for his team to reach the final, and India moved on to the 19 December bronze-medal match against Japan.
Although coach Basha and manager Banerjee remained with the team with players Bhowmick, Habib, Thapa, Nataraj and Rajvi, their poor performance continued in 1974.
Since India would host the 1982 Asian Games, the AIFF began preparations by giving international exposure (with longer camps) to the senior team near the end of 1980; this led to a dispute between the Calcutta Football League clubs and the AIFF, which did not realize that if the players remained with national team instead of representing the clubs, they would incur a financial loss.
Manager P. P. Lakshmanan wrote a report critical of the Bengal players' attitude, and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) withdrew the national team from the 1990 and 1994 games.
[115][116] This led to a meeting of the AIFF and the ministry, which allowed the team to participate in light of their performances at the 2023 Tri-Nation Series, Intercontinental Cup and SAFF Championship.
The draw for the Hangzhou Games was held on 27 July, and India was drawn in Group A with host China, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
