The next month and or so may prove to be pivotal for the Indian men’s football team and their coach Igor Stimac. They are preparing hard at the camp in Kolkata, after a brief preparatory camp in Bellary from April 24, for the upcoming AFC Asian Cup 2023 Qualifiers in the City of Joy from June 8.
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The team is slated to take on Indian Super League side ATK Mohun Bagan on May 11, followed by two friendlies against some selected players from the I-league on May 17 and 20.
With the upcoming challenges in mind, head coach Sitmac has been hard at work with his wards in the camp. After the camp, India will travel to Doha for international friendlies against Zambia and Jordan on May 25 and May 28 respectively.
“India is still not in the place where we can say that against better-ranked teams, we can come out and play open football and take too much risk. We still don’t have that quality but we can make sure when we are going to face lower-ranked teams, we are capable of putting lots of pressure on them by playing continuous attacking football and playing the game in the final third and the finishing. So this is something we have been working on trying to hear some combinations of course now in the second phase there will be plenty of work on set pieces. Most of the time in games that the opponent is mostly defending throughout the game. You need to find a way to break them down and to open the score you know, so in these games, the most important thing is to force the first goal to make the game and life easier,” Stimac said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Stimac also said that there are 24 players in the preparatory camp with Rahim Ali, Chinglensana Singh being released and Narender Gahlot out with injury. Bipin Singh, Apuia and Rahul Bheke, who represented Mumbai City FC at the AFC Champions League recently, along with Laxmikant Kattimani will join the camp on Wednesday.
In the third and final round of the qualifiers, India is in Group D with Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Cambodia.
Stimac feels Afghanistan, who India has already faced in the group stage of the joint World Cup and Asia Cup qualifiers, could be the toughest opponent given their physical style of play, while he and his analytics team have been keeping a close eye on Hong Kong and Cambodia’s recent progress.
Stimac is counting on the home support in the football-crazy city to help them in their camping as they play Cambodia on June 8 at Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan.
“We are favourites and we are not hiding from that fact. We are confident and we will go to the pitch and try to earn a spot. But I see India in the Asian Cup main tournament, no doubt about it. I hope to see great support here (in Kolkata) and we can all celebrate together after the third game in the qualifiers,” Stimac said.
When pressed about what he wants to achieve as a team from the qualifiers, Stimac maintained, “I’m interested in the final result in a way that we qualify for the Asian cap. I don’t mind how many points or how many goals we score. Our aim is to qualify. Of course, if we make it three wins, that would be fantastic. But the aim is to qualify.”
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