Though India U-17 team was thrashed 3-0 by the USA U-17 side, there were moments when the Indian colts showed glimpses of excellence.
Nongdamba Naorem produced a magical run, weaving past as many as four USA defenders. The run may not have yielded any particular result, as the US defence was well organised, and they managed to crowd him out inside the box, but it brought a great moment of joy for the Indian football fans, to see one of their players jinking past some of the top junior footballers of the world.
India have never participated in any format of the World Cup before, but the craze for football has been amazing through the ages. Many kids play football in their childhood and a common practise among all Indians is to dribble, rather than pass the ball. From a very young age, Indians try to dribble and Nong was no different in the match against USA. His brilliance was surely one of the talking point of the match.
Even after losing the match, India coach Luis Norton de Matos sounded very positive. He said that the side believes that they are prepared for the FIFA U-17 World Cup and worked hard and to progress.
But at the same time, he also feels they have gone directly to a high-level of competition against some of the best teams from around the world. He also feels they will come back tougher in the matches against Columbia and Ghana. If India can get a few results out of these games, they could go through to the next round. However, it goes without saying that things won’t be easy.
