Teams to assess younger players
Captain Sunil Chhetri could reach the milestone of 100 caps. It was a mixed bag when he first arrived for the Camp.
Mumbai: India ranked in the top hundred will be up against lower teams in Fifa rankings at the four-nation Intercontinental Cup that gets under way at the Mumbai Football Arena here from Friday. The Stephen Constantine coached side will meet Chinese Taipei in the opener.
All the teams including India have predominantly young squads, many of whom are untested. Many players are set to receive international debuts during the course of the ten-day tournament.
For India it will be preparation for the AFC Asian Cup and for Chinese Taipei they are hoping to do well in Asian Games (in August) and East Asian Cup (in November). Kenya are preparing for the African qualifiers in September while New Zealand who hardly get to play have a bigger window at their disposal to assess their young players.
Constantine played down the Fifa rankings and said every team in the tournament will pose a challenge. “Fifa rankings can be misleading. There are teams below us that are better and teams above us that aren’t so good. We will use this tournament as a preparation for the AFC Asian Cup,” he said.
“We have the Asian Games, the SAFF Championships, ISL and I League games and a camp just before Asian Cup. There is a lot of Football to be played between now and the Asian Cup.”
Chinese Taipei coach Gary White who has been to India earlier as coach of Guam team, felt it is an opportunity for the youngsters. Like Chinese Taipei, Kenya have also come with young squad as their senior players are still busy with their own league and their head coach was yet to arrive due to visa issues which could be resolved on Friday. New Zealand are beginning a new cycle under coach Fritz Schmid and are here to assess their youngsters.
Captain Sunil Chhetri could reach the milestone of 100 caps. “It was a mixed bag when he first arrived for the Camp. There were players some of whom hadn’t played for almost a month while there were some who joined the Camp straight from an AFC Cup match. We are all now on the same page. The desire to play is 200 per cent,” he said.