AFC Asian Cup qualifier: Ryan Williams showed how a quality player can make a difference in Indian football | Football News
More than the goal, Ryan Williams provided something to India that decades of grassroot football has not been able to — composure in the midfield. A left-winger for his club Bengaluru FC, Williams — on his debut for India after giving up his Australian passport and becoming the first naturalised player to play for the national team since Japan’s Arata Izumi more than a decade ago — scored within three minutes in Kochi. But in a 66-minute appearance that ended with him clutching his thigh and being taken out of the game, the 32-year-old had ensured that his adopted country had played its best football in the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. In their five games before the one in Kochi, India did what India usually does. Select players, put them in positions that didn’t match their profile, and then expected the chaos of Indian grassroot, and then club football, to somehow miraculously disappear as soon as the national anthems were done. Ranked the best in a group of Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangladesh, the national …
