Manisha Kalyan stood alone.
30-odd metres from goal, ball a few feet away, she stood there with her shorts hitched up and four in the pristine-white of Chinese Taipei in front of her. As she jogged in and planted her right heel next to the ball, left leg violently stretching backwards, bent at the knee so that the lower half was primed to explode onto the ball, the aura exuding off her was palpable. In that instant she cocked her left foot for the shot, everyone watching knew something was about to happen. It's not a feeling you often get off an Indian footballer.
Ayush Kumar's picture, posted at the start of the piece, captures the essence of this aura. As a visual representation of what Manisha Kalyan is in this Indian team, few images could do more justice: her alone, her opponents palpably worried, the ball about to get thwacked.
Take a bow, Manisha Kalyan!
What a strike! One of the finest goals we've seen at #WAC2026 👏⚽#INDvTPE pic.twitter.com/Qar4YANmdh
- #WAC2026 (@afcasiancup) March 10, 2026
Unfreeze the frame and you'll see that the ball was indeed thwacked. As the ball pinged off the underside off the crossbar and bounced in for India's equaliser against Chinese Taipei, hope sprung anew. Maybe India could, in fact, win this must-win group stage match, maybe Manisha could drag India over the line and into the quarterfinals... but around her, everyone crumbled. Defensive mistakes crept in too often, final third passes went awry, finishes were snatched at as Chinese Taipei ran out 3-1 winners, a result that knocked India out of the AFC Women's Asian Cup 2026. Dead last, zero points, a goal difference of -14.
Amid all this, though, Manisha Kalyan stood alone. Just as she did before scoring one of the finest goals an Indian has in an international tournament of this stature.
Played centrally in the second half against Vietnam and the full match here against Chinese Taipei, Manisha was - by a very large distance - India's best player over the past week. She alone seemed to be able to up the tempo when needed, find passes into space to open up defences, hold up play and bring the attack forward with her. She alone seemed to be able to bully the bullies, to take on the physicality and the pace of the modern Asian game. She alone seemed to have the technique on the ball to threaten the opposition goal.
Against Vietnam, there was that trivela through ball to Soumya Gugoloth. There was the holdup play and attraction-of-markers that allowed the likes of young Sanfida Nongrum to ghost in behind her. Against Chinese Taipei there was this freekick goal, another freekick attempt from an impossible angle that required a superb save, perfectly taken corner kicks.
There was her dropping deep, holding off three markers at once and swinging it wide to the left to Pyari Xaxa and starting another Indian attack. There was her bullying centre-backs and central midfielders alike as she looked to spark India to life repeatedly. At times in these two games, she looked like she was playing a different game to her compatriots.
And maybe she was. Of the 26 players in the India squad in Australia, Manisha alone plays at a serious level outside India. She's in Peru currently, and she got there via Cyprus - a route that was solely made possible by dint of those old cliches: sheer determination and proper hard work. For the girl from Muggowal (in Punjab) who had been teased for playing a boy's sport, for the young footballer who had struggled initially to understand English, to being outside India, to the pace of the game in Europe, for the experienced professional who had shrugged aside the chance to come back home and win comfortably and instead chosen to fly away all the way to South America... nothing had come easy, and all of it had been her choice. As she took to the pitch in Australia, it showed.
She had upped her game in every aspect. In Cyprus, she had accepted her limitations and gone to left-back. She'd worked her way back up to the left wing, and that's where she plays in Peru. When she rocked up at centre-forward for India, she looked the part and then some. Pride swallowed, lessons learnt, skillset levelled up.
Manisha will now fly back to Peru, returning to the hustle and bustle of regular league football, looking to better herself again. Her compatriots will fly back to India, awaiting the restart of the hastily arranged, chaotically conducted, woefully unbalanced IWL. Maybe this week will remind them of what can be if they follow the Manisha example, somehow work past the innumerable barriers that are stacked in front of a woman footballer in India and push yourself further than you ever thought possible. Maybe they will look at her and shake their heads wistfully at the aberration from the normal that she is.
Manisha Kalyan stands alone. An example and a hero. A shining beacon of hope and what-could-be. As long as she does, though, Indian football will yearn for the day when she's no longer by herself.