New Delhi: Tough road lies ahead for India in their quest to complete a hat-trick at the country’s premier footballing event The Nehru Cup. India who have dipped down to their lowest ever FIFA ranking have their task cut out against Syria in the tournament opener, the team which Indian skipper Sunil Chettri feels is one of the most fast improving sides in Asia.
India champion of the last two editions in 2007 and 2009 not only miss the services of some of their experienced players such as Bhaichung Bhutia, Mahesh Gawli and Climax Lawrence, the biggest challenge that lies ahead of them is adapting to their new coach.
Indian Team with a mix of experience and young legs is exposed a new concept of total football under their coach Wim Koevarmans and their skipper Sunil Chhetri feels that the team is doing well and trying to adapt to the situation.
Star striker Chhetri who joined the Indian camp a week back after pre-season training with his Portuguese club Sporting Lisbon will have a huge role to play with the team expected to field a 4-4-1-1 formation instead of traditional 4-4-2. Chhetri will be the lone man up front something not usual when he is donning the Indian colour but then it looked like Chettri is up for the challenge.
The host nation ranked 168 enter the five nations tournament as the lowest ranked team, but then the team sees no point in pressing the panic button as the mood in the camp is very upbeat and they feel that ranking hardly would come into play. The other teams in the competition are Cameroon (59), Nepal (162) and Maldives (161) and Syria (147).
Ideally India should have an upper-hand over Syria in tomorrow’s as the former have beaten the latter in the previous two Nehru Cup finals, but then Chhetri feels that nothing depends on the past performance.
“Just because we beat them in the last two editions of the Nehru cup doesn’t mean the trend will continue. But we want it to,” said Chettri during the pre-tournament press conference.
Amidst all of these, one things that remains positive is that they are adapting very fast to the new coach which would do wonders for them in the tournament.
“The most important thing for a player is to understand what the coach wants from him and the team at large. We as a team should respond to the coach and play as a cohesive unit. I feel that is the most important thing,” said the skipper Chhetri.
Asked about their opponent Syria, Chhetri said, “They are one of the more improved nations in Asia. All I know about them is that they are very good. But having said that, it’s about us isn’t it. We have to stick to the plan and play our game. Rest will be taken care of.”
It is the first assignment for Dutch Koevarmans and he said that his boys have the quality to go on and defend their title.
"It is a new start for me and for the players. It is a learning process for me and them as well. I am really happy with the way things have gone so far. The boys have given their hundred percent in each and every training session and I feel that have a lot of potential.”
“I believe they can adapt to the desired style of play as it suits them very well. These guys are not very tall so I thought the pass and play style would suit them, and they are coping really well. I am extremely pleased,” said Koevarmans.
Indian squad:
Goalkeepers: Subrata Pal, Subhasish Roychowdhury, Karanjeet Singh.
Defenders: Nirmal Chhetri, Denzil Franco, Gourmangi Singh, Gurwinder Singh, Raju Gaikwad, Syed Rahim Nabi.
Midfielders: Lenny Rodrigues, Mehtab Hossain, Jewel Raja, Francis Fernandes, Alwyn George, Anthony Pereira, Sanju Pradhan, Clifford Miranda.
Forwards: Robin Singh, Sunil Chhetri, Manandeep Singh.
Indian Sports News Network
