Gurpreet upbeat about future of Indian football

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 24

Indian goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu feels the country’s recent show in the AFC Asian Cup will have a huge impact on the Indian football.

India began their campaign with a convincing 4-1 win over Thailand, but bowed out in the first round after losing back-to-back matches against the hosts UAE and Bahrain.

“Twenty one out of the 23 players in the team were playing at such a stage for the first time. Now, we want to take it from here. It is important for us to deliver at the big stages and we shall do so,” said Gurpreet.

“The impact of the competition will be huge for the Indian football,” he insisted. 

“This team can go places if we remain united, and the game plan is in the right place. We are out of the tournament but we can certainly do more than we did,” he added.

Gurpreet further said the team was not at its best against Bahrain. “I had to make sure that we were in the game till the very last minute. It was difficult physically and mentally as they were coming at us all guns blazing. We fought till the end but fell short.”

Gurpreet, who was also a part of the 2011 Asian Cup squad, however, maintained that the “team matched their opponents in all the three matches.” “We fought and there weren’t any one-sided games. We matched our opponents every minute and were even better than them on many occasions. We got points on the board, and showed that we could match our opponents,” he said.