The Indian team was greeted and appreciated by the crowd for their sporting manner."The French had been given a run for their money – and that, too, by the barefooted Indians!", the British media expressed. At a press conference, shortly after, the Indians were asked why they played barefooted. The ever witty then Indian captain Talimeren Ao said, “Well, you see, we play football in India, whereas you play BOOTBALL!” which was applauded by the British. The next day, that comment was splashed in the newspapers of London. Sarangapani Raman scored the only goal for India in that match and thus the first Indian international goal ever in the Olympics. India qualified by default for the 1950 FIFA World Cup finals as a result of the withdrawal of all of their scheduled opponents. But the governing body AIFF decided against going to the World Cup, being unable to understand the importance of the event at that time. Reason shown by AIFF was that there was the cost of travel, although FIFA agreed to bear a major part of the travel expenses, lack of practice time, team selection issues and valuing Olympics over FIFA World cup. Although FIFA imposed a rule banning barefoot play following 1948 Olympics where India had played barefoot, the suggestion that the Indian team refused to play because they were not allowed to play barefoot is not entirely true; according to the then-Indian captain Sailen Manna, it was invented to cover up. The team had not made it past the first round of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers until 2018, when they defeated Nepal 2–0 over the course of two home-and-away games. The period from 1951 to 1962 is considered the golden era in Indian football. Under the tutelage of Syed Abdul Rahim India became the best team in Asia. The Indian team started the 1950s with victory in the 1951 Asian Games which they hosted. India beat both Indonesia and Afghanistan 3–0 to reach the final where they beat Iran 1–0. In 1952, India continued their form by winning the Colombo Quadrangular Cup held in Sri Lanka. This is called as the Golden time of Indian football. As four years earlier, many of the team played without boots but after the result in the Olympics AIFF immediately made it mandatory to wear boots. India also won three further editions of the Quadrangular Cup, which were held in Burma, Calcutta and Dhaka in 1953, 1954 and 1955 respectively. India then went on to finish eighth in the 1954 Asian Games held in Manila.