SAFF U20 Championship: India coach wants better finishing

Kathmandu, August 20

Coming off a fighting win over Bhutan, the Indian team will need to work on its finishing in the upcoming matches of the SAFF U20 Championship, head coach Ranjan Chaudhuri said.

Having beaten their Himalayan neighbours 1-0 in their opening match, India have provisionally taken the top spot in Group B with three points.

While Chaudhuri was full of praise for his boys who managed to hold on to the lead against Bhutan despite being down to nine men, he also pointed out how India still need to improve while going forward.

“The way our boys fought after the two red cards is indeed commendable. It’s not easy to set a stable formation with nine players, but they managed to hold fort. It speaks a great deal about their character,” said Chaudhuri. “Not only did they hold fort, but they also broke through Bhutan’s defence a few times. Finishing is perhaps the one area we have to work on.”

With a three-day gap before their next match against Maldives on August 23, the Blue Colts could manage to squeeze some rest and recovery into their packed schedule.

“We are playing on artificial turfs, which do tend to take a toll on the body, so we have planned to have a recovery session today. We had initially planned for a pool session, but the rain and the relatively cooler weather here in Nepal made us reconsider those plans. Hence we went ahead with light stretching. We plan to put in two productive training sessions in the next couple of days before we play Maldives,” Chaudhuri said.

India will have one eye on the next Group B match between Bhutan and Maldives on Wednesday as a victory for the latter would secure a spot in the semifinals for the Blue Colts.

“I’m watching all the matches in this tournament, and I will definitely be watching that one. A lot depends on how that match goes,” he said. “We are also going to dissect our match and try to rectify our mistakes from it.”

Pramveer and Vanlalpeka Guite will be suspended for the next match after being sent off against Bhutan.