Brazil and Uruguay showed India the loophole. Can it close a longer ISL?

“You can train as much as you want, but at the end of the day it’s about the matches. The more games you play, I think it helps the players.”

Akash Mishra’s words ring true even three days after India’s friendly window against Panama, Brazil and Uruguay ended. Matches against Brazil and Uruguay showed just how ruthless the top level can be and also highlighted that India’s defenders need more games.

India drew 1-1 with Panama, they lost 4-0 to Brazil and then lost 6–1 to Uruguay, conceding 11 goals in two games against the South American heavyweights.

The results themselves were not a surprise. Brazil and Uruguay arrived with players accustomed to speed, technical quality and competitive pressure that Indian footballers do not often encounter. More revealing was how the games changed. India were able to stay in the match for a period, frustrating Brazil for most of the opening half hour and even leveling Uruguay through Anirudh Thap, but once the opposition found a different gear, the margin for error reduced significantly. India had their moments against former World Cup winners Brazil and Uruguay. (Image: Reuters)

If the results were inexorable, the decision to organize this block of three matches was not without controversy. The AIFF withdrew from the inaugural FIFA ASEAN Cup as his schedule clashed with friendly matches and he gave up on a tournament that would have offered competitive matches for the national team.

Instead, India played three exhibition matches, with the federation spending millions to bring overseas teams to India at a time when Indian football was already struggling with financial constraints.

But that doesn’t make friends a mistake. India needed to see this level because playing only opposition closer to their own rankings will not prepare them for the football they ultimately want to play. Mishra made this point before the start of the window when he said that India cannot approach these matches simply as a learning experience.

“They are international friendlies, nation against nation, so we can’t just go there to learn. We have to fight them and give our best.”

The bigger question is what India will do with these lessons once the international window closes. Because while Brazil and Uruguay brought glamour, attention and a chance to match India at the highest level, the ASEAN Cup would offer something less glamorous but just as important: a replay.

The tournament requires players to carry over from one performance to the next, with recovery, adjustment, selection pressure and the next opponent arriving before the previous result is properly equalised. This repeat would be significant for a team that entered the international window without a competitive domestic season behind it.

So the decision should not be reduced to a choice between glamor and substance. India needs both. They need nights that put Brazil on the other side of the pitch, but they also need enough football between them for those nights to be more than an occasional glimpse of how far the top level still has to go.

India may now have something that can ensure that repeat on a more permanent basis: a rebranded Indian Super League.

THE INDIAN PLAYERS WERE NOT PREPARED FOR THE MATCH

One might say that the difference between India and the top opposition was expected. But how many competitive matches did these players actually play in the months before they faced Brazil and Uruguay?

The 2025-26 ISL season only started in February after the management ran into legal trouble.

Each team had just 13 league games, making 91 matches over the course of the season, with no fixtures and a campaign compressed into a few months.

Thirteen league games is a remarkably small amount of competitive football for a professional player, especially in a country where the ISL remains the main route through which many national team regulars pick up top minutes. The 13-game league leaves very little room for players to develop over the course of the season.

This is also why reducing the argument to fit fitness misses something important. More plays build instinctive decisions that come from repeatedly positioning yourself in situations where the next pass, run or defensive action carries consequences. Training can rehearse these moments, but competitive soccer is where they become instinct.

India saw it against Brazil and Uruguay. Uruguay in particular managed to turn the contest that India had managed to hold on for an hour in a 6-1 defeat.

Jamil’s assessment after that game was revealing without being apologetic.

“Of all the games you’ve seen, the first 30 minutes were fine. After that, maybe there was a problem of fitness or concentration. There’s a lot. I saw more problems during the game, after that period and then again around the 60th or 70th minute. We have to think about it and solve it next time.” Khalid Jamil believes his team lacked full-game focus during the international window. (Image: PTI)

It would be wrong to turn this into a neat explanation of the result. But when a national coach identifies a pattern that emerges over the course of a match, the environment in which these players prepare week after week will inevitably become part of the discussion.

CHECK OUT TEAMS OF INDIA

The contrast is even more striking when you look at the football going on around the players India have faced.

Brazil’s Serie A had already played 28 rounds before Brazil played India on 3 October. Round 29 was scheduled for 7 and 8 October after the match against India. The Clausura from Uruguay, meanwhile, completed its ninth round by October 5, a day before Uruguay faced India in Kolkata.

These figures do not mean that each Brazil or Uruguay international has played 28 or nine club games, especially with many of them overseas. However, they do give a sense of the competitive environment around these national teams. Their international players were coming into the window from football seasons already well under way, rather than the long preparation period that awaited the start of the domestic calendar.

Uruguay also played Japan and South Korea on their Asian tour before facing India, beating South Korea 4-1 after losing 3-1 to Japan. Brazil played Australia twice during their tour before facing India. Neither comparison is directly equivalent to India’s domestic calendar, but both underscore the rhythm around the opposition.

Meanwhile, India’s players were still waiting for the home season to begin.

Jamil has now asked for more time together after the Uruguayan defeat. Khalid Jamil wants Indian players to spend more time together. (Image: PTI)

“We need to have more camps. I think all the players are at a similar level but we have to select the best. The games are coming up and we will see who will perform the best. This is the start of the season and we also play New Zealand next year.”

Camps can improve understanding and sharpen the game plan, but they can’t replicate the pressure and unpredictability of a league game every few days. For most of these players, that work has to start all over again with their clubs.

ISL 2026-27 MUST MATTER

The 2026-27 ISL will begin on October 10 with 13 clubs and a return to a home-and-away format. Each club will play each of the other 12 teams twice, so each side will play 24 league games.

For Indian football, this is more than just fixing the fixture list. It’s an opportunity to restore some of the competitive rhythm that was lost last season.

Twenty-four league matches still doesn’t put the ISL in the same category as the world’s biggest domestic competitions, especially when cup and continental football are taken into account. But it gives players a lot more room to develop over the course of the season. Coaches have a larger pool of performances to choose from, young players have more opportunities to develop and clubs have more time to build relationships. The Indian Super League is now more important than ever. (Image: Reuters)

The November international window will offer an early indication of whether this matters. India are scheduled to face New Zealand in Auckland on November 12 and Christchurch on November 15, giving Jamil another opportunity to test his team against a side that featured in the 2026 World Cup. This time, India’s players should arrive with competitive club football behind them, rather than still waiting for the domestic season to begin.

But the ISL cannot carry the entire burden.

BUILD A SYSTEM, NOT JUST A PREPARATION

Diego Forlan, who played for Mumbai City in the 2016 ISL and returned to India this month as Uruguay’s head coach spoke about the same problem from the other end of the football pyramid.

“You have to build from the ground up, academies, young players, kids to start playing a lot. If you build more academies, the league will get stronger and stronger, you will get more players and better players, that’s for sure.” Uruguay head coach Diego Forlan believes that Indian football needs to focus on building the foundations. (Image: PTI)

Therefore, the league discussion cannot stop at the ISL. A stronger second tier, a better academy and a more reliable pathway for young players all contribute to the same goal. The national team needs more players to seriously compete for places rather than the same group being asked to fill every international window.

The big games and the domestic league are not competing ideas. One tells you the standard, while the other must provide the reps needed to move up to it.

India have spent years finding moments that make football feel bigger. The next stage is to ensure that these moments are connected to what happens on a regular Saturday night in the league.

BIG FRIENDS STILL HAVE A PLACE

The match in Brazil showed that India can make a world class team uncomfortable. The game against Uruguay showed how quickly it can disappear when the opposition find space and India lose control of the contest. Thapa’s equalizer was a real moment of quality and belief, but Uruguay’s response was equally instructive. Within minutes, the game moved from India again.

Jamil was certainly not suggesting that these devices should be abandoned. Even after the 6-1 defeat, he defended the decision to play Brazil and Uruguay.

“Whatever was decided was done collectively. We shouldn’t say they were bad games just because the results didn’t go in our favor. If the results were good, we would say they were necessary games. But yes, we need to play against big teams and good teams.” Khalid Jamil believes these high-profile friendlies still have a place for Indian football. (Image: PTI)

This is an important distinction. India have not learned that they should stop playing the best teams available. They learned how much work they still have to go through before playing them again.

And that work starts on October 10.

The ISL cannot be expected to close the gap on Brazil or Uruguay on its own, nor can 24 league games at once transform India into a different national team. What it can provide is a sustained run of competitive football in which players can make mistakes, react to them, gain places, lose places, build partnerships and improve without waiting for the next international window to provide another meaningful test.

– The end