Clubbed with USA, Colombia and Ghana, India face a mammoth task come October at the FIFA U-17 World Cup. Coach, Luís Norton de Matos is well aware of the challenge that is in store for his side but managed to put things into perspective. The Portuguese threw light on the problems that continue to plague Indian football but remained confident that it could all change starting from October.
“Mexican players, Brazilian players have ten years of competition experience. They’ve played around 150 games at the international level in the U-12, U-13, U-14 categories. There are things that you can only learn by playing on the field,” he said.
One of India’s opponents, USA have been part of 15 U-17 World Cup tournaments till date and Norton believes playing competitive matches is the only way Indian football can make moves on the global circuit. The coach is confident that in the future, India wouldn’t have to host a football tournament in order to take part in it.
“Playing for 3 points is completely different than playing friendly games. If we play very well in a friendly, we still get 0 points, there’s no pressure. This is the big problem of Indian football at this moment but the U17 World Cup can be the first step. In the future, we can fight for qualifying not because we simply organised the tournament. It is possible,” he explained.
Speaking about the draw, Norton reckons India’s toughest challenge will come from the South American outfit. Colombia were placed third at the recently concluded South American U-17 Championship.
Also read: FIFA Under-17 World Cup: Full list of group stage fixtures and time table with match timings, venues
“Our opponents play different types of football. Colombia play typical South American football, I’ve watched a lot of games there and Colombia are always in the top four there. According to me, they’re a very strong team,” he opined.
Asked if has had enough time to put together a cohesive team capable of mounting a serious challenge, the coach accepted that taking charge on such short notice (March) isn’t an ideal scenario but he refused to use that as an excuse.
“Since I accepted this challenge, there has not been much time but it’s the time I have been given to work. I don’t want to give excuses, we’ve worked very hard to be competitive. At the end of each game, the people must be proud with the behaviour of the players on the field,” he said.
Never before has an Indian football team been under a magnifying glass of this proportion. When this young side take to the field in a couple of months, the global football community will be watching, eager to know what India have in store. But Norton fired out a warning to his boys, encouraging them not to get overawed by the spectacle.
“Sometimes you think a player will have a fantastic game but then he panics during the game. I try to give them freedom and help them enjoy football. They did very well in Europe. The most difficult thing is to be focused for 90 minutes because you can’t make mistakes against quality teams.”
“We can’t afford teams space, we need to reduce it. If you play Spain, Brazil and if your lines aren’t closed, it’s finished! They can score 5, 6, 7 goals. We must play compact. All the best teams in the world defend with 11 players,” he signed off.
