When Baichung Bhutia laid his hands on the Nehru Gold Cup on Wednesday night in New Delhi, Indian football savoured a rare moment of exhilaration.

A trophy triumph for the national team is not a frequent occurrence, and the scenes at the Ambedkar Stadium perfectly portrayed the jubilant mood, especially with success being achieved against a higher-ranked opposition.

Syria, at 112, are 39 slots ahead of India in the FIFA rankings for national teams, both countries languishing in the footballing backwaters of the world. But on Wednesday, India bridged the gap with an exemplary display, taking the field with a positive attitude, playing with aggression and never relinquishing their advantage.

Defeat for Syria was a natural consequence, with Bhutia’s men riding superbly on the momentum gained from the earlier matches.

While the trophy triumph was a tribute to teamwork, it also underlined the planning that went into the Indian campaign, with coach Bob Houghton playing a key role behind the scenes.

Many a time in the past, big defeats against strong opposition had sapped India’s morale but this time, Houghton chose clubs in Portugal’s lower division as India’s rivals during the preparatory phase. Even in the tournament proper, India met countries who were in the same league or lower in terms of footballing standard, barring the Syrians.

Prior to the Nehru Cup, India’s last success in international football had come in 2005 in Karachi, at the SAFF Cup, a tournament exclusively for South Asian teams. For a team that had won two Asian Games gold medals, besides reaching the semifinal of the Olympic Games once, the slide has been shocking indeed, with the All India Football Federation unable to find a way out of the mess.

The win at New Delhi showed that a climb to the top rungs, at least in the continent, is not an impossible dream. But for that to happen the Federation will have to chart out a development programme at the lower levels, building a strong foundation for the senior team.

There was a time when India could take on teams like Japan and South Korea on equal terms and beat them in football. These nations are now giants of Asia, all thanks to a system that spotted and nurtured talent at the grassroot level. As they bask in the Nehru Cup glory, the AIFF could well take a leaf out of their books, for a shot at the bigger goal.