India, Oct. 17 -- "The attendance in today's match is 2036. We thank you all for coming." My first flippant thought after the announcement over the public address system at the Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda was that the emcee had a wacky sense of humour.

Given that I was on a deadline, I couldn't find out if thanking the sparse turnout was a dig at those who did come. But this much was clear: either Goa didn't care about the men's national team even when an international had come its way after eight years or the build-up was far from perfect. That it was happening in a state where football is a state sport, one which continues to produce India players and where wearing a team tee is common and gender agnostic is a matter of ...