India U-17 World Cup working squad, playing to secure their spot in the final 21-member team for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, put in their hard yards in testing playing conditions against the visiting Mauritius side for a friendly on Thursday.
PANAJI
A 3-0 win notwithstanding, there was no excuse as the Indian colts lacked the precision and power to bring merit to their dominance and yield a more convincing result. India U-17 coach Luis Norton de Matos spoke to ‘The Goan' after the match at Nagoa ground on Thursday. To a question, he had this in reply.
"This match was very important to us as it was our last international game before the World Cup. I wanted to watch all the players and as such, I put in two teams in either halves. It does not mean that the first team would play at the next stage," the Portuguese coach said. "The way we play is almost the same. The show that was put on was not easy because we like to build the game. The corridors rendered it difficult to providing stability."
"Of course, there were two periods for the team. We started well-organised. The physical conditioning of the players was good initially, but with minutes going by they began to lose concentration. This could be attributed to the ground conditions not being so good. In the second half, it was normal to win the game," the five-time capped Portuguese international stated.
On fringe players tried out that may have impressed him, the India U-17 gaffer preferred to stay tight-lipped. "I never talk about individual names. For me, the team is important. Today the player that may play better than another would perhaps not play as good in the next game. For me, the collectiveness of the team, the possession of the ball, the organisation of the team when they have the ball, a lot of things that is not sometimes perceptible to others is what I look at," De Matos explained.
With Boris looking in fine form, how will he deal with the influential player's absence (Boris received a second bookable offence against Iran in the AFC U-16 Championship) in the their opening World Cup U-17 tie against USA on October 6 came the next question. "When I came here, I knew Boris would not be able to play the game. But I am happy he can be part of the group," the coach replied.
On their last friendly before moving to Delhi, he expressed satisfaction. "For me, it is a big victory to finish the game without any injury. My main concern was the field which was difficult. You can have a lot of knocks, physical contacts. We had a good workout. We never lost concentration to score a goal and built enough possibilities to score and win the game," De Matos said.
India Colts leave for Delhi on September 26 to begin their last phase of preparations before they kick-start their first-ever U-17 World Cup campaign with an inaugural day match against USA on October 6, with subsequent ties against Colombia (October 9) and Ghana (October 12) in their Group A.
