The Nepali women's football team has not been able to win any title so far. This year's SAFF Championship was no exception. Moreover, this time Nepal was stopped in the semifinals. That means Nepal has also lost its image as the evergreen second best team. This is only the second time in the history of the Women's SAFF Championship that Nepal has been stopped in the semifinals. Before that, it was the first time since 2016 that it was stopped in the last four.

Therefore, if we analyze the Nepali women's national team's tour of India this year, it should be considered a failure. The impact of this on the team was so great that when the players left the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium after the game, everyone's heads were bowed. No one was talking to each other. Especially coach Naveen Neupane looked shocked. Neupane, who was a little shy at other times and always had a smile on his face, was speechless.

The question is, what happened? Nepal has been playing international women's football since 1986, and now it is approaching four decades. So far, Nepal has not been able to win a single tournament during this period. Most of the time, the team's destiny has been to reach the final and lose. Probably, Nepal had a strong opportunity to win the title in the last three editions when they were at home. Moreover, Nepal should have won the two editions in Kathmandu.

But Nepal has been consistently defeated in the decisive knockout stage matches. Now, what is starting to happen is that it has started creating a kind of pressure on the team. This is both mental and physical. Now, the 'jink' of not being able to win the title has started to bother the Nepali team. Before each tournament, the team has the same claim, Nepal has come to win the title. Now, perhaps it is necessary to get rid of this mentality.

It seems that there should be a new goal for each stage. Where was Nepal's preparation before flying to India? It can be said that the team's preparation was not proper due to the domestic football controversy. The fault for this lies largely with the founding party of the highest football body, ANFA. But the opposition never said that the preparation of the women's team should not be hindered and that the training program should be smooth. Perhaps Nepali football has started to focus more on off-field politics than on-field games.

If we talk to the players of the Nepali women's team informally, everyone has started expressing dissatisfaction with this fact. Many have the same opinion, football politics has its place, but why does it affect our game? Before flying to India, Nepal did not even play a friendly match. Moreover, it had also lost an official FIFA tournament held in Thailand. Nepali players had expressed their disappointment over this fact.

In the last five years, there has been confusion about who the real captain of the Nepali team is. Moreover, the captaincy dispute also seems to have affected the team. This is an issue that needs to be resolved as soon as possible. Now, let's not make a player the captain whose place in the starting 11 is not certain. The current captain, Angela Subba, first led the team in 2022, when coach Kumar Thapa gave her this opportunity in the SAFF Championship.

Then, in a controversial situation, Patrick de Wilde gave the captaincy to Savitra Bhandari. With Angela and Savitra gone, it is easy to decide who to give the captaincy to, because the team has an experienced player in the form of Renuka Nagarkote. Here, there is no need to criticize these three players nor is there any doubt about their contribution to the team. The point is, the captain should be the player who is undoubtedly the first choice. If the current team structure is to return, it is necessary to reconsider its frontline and defense. Recently, where some specific weaknesses have started to be seen in the defense of the Nepali team, it seems that the frontline has forgotten to score goals. Many have started asking, where did the goals go? Coach Neupane has clearly accepted the absence of Savitra as a concrete reason for Nepal's poor performance in this time's SAFF.

Nepal has played 7 games under the leadership of the same coach Neupane. Of these, there have been 4 losses and only three wins. This is a situation where the percentage of losses has increased over wins in the performance of the national team. Meanwhile, Nepal has scored 7 goals, while conceding 9 goals. This also shows that there is definitely some problem in the team. Coach Neupane has also shown helplessness, there are no goals being scored . 

It is not something that can be solved by criticizing the Nepali team as soon as it returns from Goa . A big change is not needed in Nepali women's football . The philosophy of football says that no one has any perfect title for the development of this game, nor will there be . First of all, we should pay attention to the basic facts . For example, from the establishment of the academy to regular competitions, emphasizing grassroots level football, solid preparation is necessary before big competitions .