After suffering a 6-1 defeat against Jordan in their opening match, the India U-16 team will now face Turkmenistan in their AFC under-16 championship qualifier (Group C) at Al Qatara stadium, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates on Monday.
The Indian team did an hour’s practice session with the playing XI against Jordan undergoing light fitness schedule while the bench strength was seen working on their shooting and passing. Though the confidence of the players seems to a bit low after the opening defeat but head coach Colm Toal was seen easing the pressure off the players.
All the three goalkeepers were seen practising hard with goal keeper coach Feroz Sherif rectifying their mistakes.
Both Shankar and Amoes seemed to have recovered from their minor hamstring and are fit to play in tomorrow’s encounter.
Like India their opponent Turkmenistan also lost their opening encounter to Oman and will not be high on confidence.
Colm Toal head coach with the team said, “It will be a very crucial match for us. Though despite losing the first match we are not going to change the playing XI as they are the best we have when we came here. A defeat needs to be put behind and we should look forward for the upcoming games.”
With a combination of 4-3-3 expected on the cards like the previous encounter Indian team would be looking ahead to win this match and remain in the contention.
Source: AIFF
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Sunday 4 October 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.