India’s head coach Igor Stimac said that his team has the potential to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup regularly but will need more ‘complete players’ to try and progress beyond the group stages.
“At the lower level, we’re going to dominate games. But to have better efficiency at the AFC Asian Cup, we need complete players. We either have players who can pass the ball or cannot match the strength, or the opposite. Something is missing,” he told reporters.
The Blue Tigers, following a 0-3 loss to Uzbekistan, lost consecutive games in the tournament to dent its hopes of progressing into the round of 16 significantly. Stimac said that the defeat was a reality check for his team and Indian football.
“If you allow Uzbekistan time and space, they will kill you. That’s what they did today,” he said, “This is our reality. Without too many key players, once again, we lost. We lost a chunk of that before this game.”
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India reached Qatar without three of its first-team starters, Ashique Kuruniyan, Anwar Ali and Jeakson Singh, who were ruled out with injuries. Before the second game, it lost Liston Colaco with fever and one of its most important wingers, Lallianzuala Chhangte.
“Two days ago, Chhangte felt soreness in his groin, a big one. We rested him yesterday. (But) still this morning on the screening, we noticed that it’s not perfectly well for the game,” the Crpat said.
Sportstar had earlier reported that Chhangte would miss the second game, with the Mumbai City FC winger not training with the side on the eve of the match. Though he was named on the bench and was seen doing light warm-up before the game and at half-time, he did not play in the match at all.
“There was no reason for us to risk that boy because he’s been pushing himself throughout the last couple of seasons in a big way. In the last couple of months, he’s been taped all over his legs. So, what caused that problem? We need to check and make sure that we don’t lose him for what’s ahead of us,” Stimac added.
Moreover, the coach said the key difference between India and Uzbekistan was the latter’s huge investment in youth development, creating an assembly line of talent from the next generations.
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“We need to accept that Uzbekistan is working a lot better with underage groups. They are nearly dominating under-20s and under-18s,” he said.
“They have fantastic generations of players and that’s why the national team is becoming strong. That’s where we need to speed up in India.”
In 2023 alone, Uzbekistan won the AFC U-20 Asian Cup, bagged bronze at the Asian Games 2022 (as a U-23 side), reached the semifinals of the AFC U-17 Asian Cup and the quarterfinals of the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Against India, the Player of the Match Abbosbek Fayzullaev was one of the products of the country’s youth development framework. The 20-year-old was the star of their victorious U-20 Asian Cup, also winning the Most Valuable Player Award there.
He scored the opening goal within five minutes of kick-off and combined with Igor Sergeev for the second goal too.
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