Uzbekistan vs India - U23 Olympic Qualifiers | KO: 2.30 IST
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The Championship serves as the preliminary phase of the 2016 Olympic Qualifiers to Rio. The winner of the Group along with the five best second-placed Teams (from all Groups) would proceed to the final phase of the AFC U-23 Championship which is slated to be held in Doha next year.
The Indians who are coached by Savio Medeira are pitted against three team which rank higher than the country which has a population more the three opponents.
The first of the clash see's Indian take on the vastly superior Uzbekistan who are not only physical but even technically better than the South Asian country.
Add to the fact the ground at which the Indian national team practice isn't of a top condition with traveling time of four hours to and fro taking the toll on the young lads.
Indian Head Coach:
“We are taking one match at a time. There’s so little to choose which we would be playing against. We need to concentrate on our job and we will give our best on the field,” he maintains. “Presently we are all focused on Uzbekistan and would be plotting for Syria and Bangladesh as and when we play them.”
It’s not that the Uzbeks and Syrians are just much more physical; they are also very technical equipped sides,” Medeira insists. “On the field, it’s all about decision making, both on and off the ball. At the end the Team which makes the lesser mistakes will have the last laugh.”
The Indian Camp isn’t all grinning at the moment as some untimely injuries have hit them hard. While Central defender Pawan Kumar was ruled out on the last day prior to the Preparatory Camp in Goa, Sandesh Jhingan’s food poisoning and toe injury have been a further curse.
“Jhingan is most unlikely to recover in time for the first match” Medeira further informs.
“We were unlucky not to have Narayan (Das) and Pronoy (Halder) available for the Camp as they are still under rehab,” Medira chuckles. “Moreover, Brandon (Fernandes) was already carrying an injury and had to be released. But we have made adjustments,” he continues.
India’s schedule in the AFC U-23 Championship stay as follows:
March 27: India vs Uzbekistan (IST: 2.30pm).
March 29: India vs Syria (IST: 2.30pm).
March 31: India vs Bangladesh (IST: 5.30pm).
The 23-member squad is as follows:
GOALKEPEERS: Amrinder Singh, Albino Gomes, Rehenesh TP.
DEFENDERS: Abhishek Das, Satish Singh, Sankar Sampingraj, Deepak, Bikramjit Singh, Sandesh Jhingan, Pritam Kotal.
MIDFIELDERS: Germanpreet Singh, Nikhil Kadam, Dhanachandra Meetei, Prabir Das, Siam Hangal, Manish Bhargav, Avinash Rui Das, Vinit Rai.
FORWARDS: Sumit Passi, Haokip Thonghkosim, Rajinder Kumar, Jayesh Rane, Holicharan Narzary.
HEAD COACH: Savio Medeira.
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