The India U-16 team will open their AFC under-16 championship qualifier (Group C) at Al Qatara stadium, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates against Jordan on Saturday. After reaching Al Ain from Dubai on Thursday the Indian team had two practice sessions, focusing on shooting and heading.
The team is high on confidence after having a successful four months camp at Goa followed by a two friendly matches against Sri Lanka, and is confidently looking ahead for the upcoming championship. Head coach Colm Toal worked hard with the boys during the training making them understand the mistakes they were committing during the friendly match.
He worked more on the team formation making the defenders understand the roles they needed to perform and the emphasis was on man to man marking.With no injury troubles the Indian team will be looking forward to win their first game as it would help them in their upcoming matches with the opponents expected to become more and more tough nut to crack with each passing match.
C M Ranjith assistant coach with the team said, “It will be a very crucial match for us and a victory here would definitely help the team perform better in the upcoming matches.”
With a combination of 4-4-2 expected on the cards and the strikers in good form a lot would depend upon the mid fielders and defenders to get their acts together.
Source: AIFF
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Friday 2 October 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.