Dreamt of it for long: Ryan Williams on India debut

Ecstatic after scoring on debut, India’s Australian-born striker Ryan Williams said that he had replayed the moment in his head so many times before the match that when it actually happened, he felt a bit “blurry”.

Williams made a dream India debut as his fourth-minute strike set up the home side’s 2-1 win over Hong Kong in an inconsequential Asian Cup qualifying round match on Tuesday.

“It’s a strange one. I have been dreaming about this for a long time and done a lot of work to make this happen.

You know, you couldn’t write this, in Kerala, the home of football, scoring within five minutes and winning,” Williams said in a short video posted by the All India Football Federation (AIFF). “It just went blurry.

I think I just slipped over and ran away and didn’t know what to do. Because having, in my mind, scored that goal so many times and then it happening is just special and just, you know emotions take over,” he said.

Akash Mishra scored the other goal for India in the 50th minute, also his first international strike, to help the Khalid Jamil-coached side notch its first victory of the third round of the qualifiers.