Igor Stimac should take the blame for India's defeat to Afghanistan, but what about the players?

"Stimac out" and "f**k of Stimac" chants could already be heard when an insipid and uninspired India tried to find a winning goal against an under-strength Afghanistan side in the second half of the FIFA World Cup 2026 AFC Qualifiers on Tuesday. Those chants, and fans, became even more vociferous once the 117th-ranked Blue Tigers suffered an embarrassing 2-1 defeat to world No. 158 Afghanistan — a team that is in disarray with problems back home. They can't train at home and eighteen first-choice players have boycotted the team to protest against an allegedly corrupt federation. The current side has five players who don't have a club and four of them were on the pitch.

Just as the Indian team and coach Stimac were getting to leave the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati, a large group of fans, led by Blue Pilgrims — a group of Indian football fans — surrounded the team bus and made their displeasure clear with chants criticising Stimac and the All India Football Federation (AIFF).

More from Sports

Frankly, you didn't expect the fans to behave differently. First defeat to Afghanistan in over 10 years, when they are struggling at every front, India deserved the scoreline and criticism. That Stimac is in the eye of the storm is also completely understandable.

The disgruntled fans vehemently demanded for Stimac's head as India's chances of reaching the Round 3 of the FIFA World Cup Qualifier for the first time took a serious beating.

But will AIFF sack Stimac soon? It is yet to be seen but there's a must-win game against Kuwait in June which will decide India's fate.

As it so often happens in football, whenever the team loses steam, the coach is sacked. It's a strategy that can go either way but at least you are doing something different that wasn't working for you.

However, as is the case in Indian football, the rot runs deep. Stimac is not the fountainhead of everything that is wrong with the Indian football.

He's the biggest face, but there are many other guilty parties.

In his first reaction to the result, the Croatian quickly apologised during the post-match press conference.

“The result is not difficult, it’s unpleasant. I need to say sorry in front of my staff and players."

He has at least apologised for the result, while the Indian players have still not reacted. Just as most of them did after the disastrous AFC Asian Cup, there is a complete radio silence from the players who represented India on the pitch.

Why is their reaction important?

Because we saw in last two years what they can achieve in the current system. In June 2022, India qualified for the 2023 Asian Cup by beating Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Cambodia at home with a swagger never seen before under Stimac.

In 2023, India won the Tri-National International Tournament, Intercontinental Cup and SAFF Championship at home beating teams like Kyrgyz Republic, Kuwait and Lebanon. Teams that are not only ranked higher than Afghanistan but also India.

The Blue Tigers did this by playing in a system that demands intensity, peak fitness and defensive pressing. That intensity is missing since the Kuwait win in November 2023, which was India's first away win in a FIFA World Cup qualifier in 22 years.

India went down 2-1 to Afghanistan in FIFA World Cup Qualifier. PTI

"You could see that half of our players are not bringing the intensity that is needed to keep the game going. And I cannot change that in five days," Stimac said after the match on Tuesday explaining where things are going wrong for India.

"I’m sorry, I need to repeat myself again and again and again. I hope you all remember all these players from June, July and May. They are the same players, but they cannot bring the same intensity to the game. Afghanistan is not a better team than Kuwait and Lebanon and the teams we defeated and dominated."

Despite all the disappointment and anger toward the coaching staff, you can't disagree that some of the top players have gone flat in the last few months.

Sunil Chhetri scored his 94th goal in what was his 150th international game to give India a 1-0 lead against Afghanistan but it was a goal that came from the penalty spot. At other times he was largely anonymous or unable to make use of the chances.

The penalty that India conceded to lose the match was an unnecessary mistake from senior goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu which could have been easily avoided.

There were multiple cases of midfielder Jeakson Singh and Lalengmawia Ralte (Apuia) losing the ball in crucial positions while the whole bunch lacked energy and enthusiasm. Where was the spirit to fight and take those three points that could have helped them make history?

You can copy and paste the above lines for the last few India games and it would be accurate. India are winless in four months and six matches. In these six matches, they have scored just one goal and it isn't because they couldn't create, but because they didn't take their chances. Like how Chhetri spurned a golden opportunity against Australia in January or Manvir Singh failed to put the ball into the net on Tuesday with the goal gaping.

The chances came but no one scored.

India's Jeakson Singh in action during the FIFA World Cup Qualifier match against Afghanistan. Image: AIFF

"We had enough chances today to win the game. But we didn’t win it. I cannot go on the pitch to score goals for our players," Stimac rued after India's defeat to Afghanistan.

"You can see tonight, even when we come to a position, when we have a situation where we can shoot, we pass the ball back. We run away from situations and that’s the same old story that has been haunting us for many years. We don’t have many players in our team who are taking shots from outside the box. So it’s not easy,” the former Croatia coach added explaining the lack of goals.

The same system which produced some exciting and unprecedented results is now not giving anything positive. None of the players have complained, but something is wrong. In such a scenario maybe sacking the coach is the right way to deal with the problem but what do you do when the rot runs deep? How do you fix that?