Ahead of India’s opening game against Vietnam in the under-17 AFC Asian Cup in Thailand, head coach Bibiano Fernandes said that the primary objective of the team will be nothing less than winning the game.
“I believe developing and improving players is key. But the most important for me is winning. You have to win if you want to develop world-class players,” he told reporters in a virtual interaction.
“We have worked very, very hard for this day and boys are also looking forward to this match tomorrow.”
The top four teams from the Asian Cup will qualify for the under-17 FIFA World Cup 2023 and the coach added that that was the main agenda going into the tournament.
“We need to play World Cups at this level, at the under-17 and under-20 World Cups. So, winning is also important in qualifying for the World Cup is important.”
Bibiano Fernandes has been one of the most consistent youth coaches in Indian football, guiding the under-15 team to two SAFF Championship titles, in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
In September 2022, India won the under-17 SAFF Championship with the Goan in charge.
“We have had a good preparation for the last six months or so and before that before the qualifiers and stuff also we had a very good preparation and. In Germany and Spain, we played good matches, high-level matches where it helped us on the field and also off the field,” Fernandes said.
“From there, we came to Thailand 15 days before (the tournament). It also helped us to acclimatise to the climate.”
In the Asian Cup, India is drawn in Group D with Vietnam, Uzbekistan and Japan. The Blue Colts will start its campaign against Vietnam on June 17, before facing Uzbekistan on June 20 and Japan on June 23.
“We played them (Vietnam) in 2018, in the group stage and they had a very good team at that time and no doubt Vietnam always had very good youth teams and competitive teams. But India has also qualified for the AFC Asian Cup (in its own right) and is doing really, really well now,” Fernandes said.
“Since the grassroots programs started, more and more talented youth players are showing up and this time also we have a very good team. It will be a really interesting match tomorrow.”
The biggest challenge for Fernandes’ side will be against Japan, the defending U-17 Asian Cup champion and the most successful side in the history of the tournament.
“We all know Japan. How good they are and we are aware of that. And of course, Uzbekistan is really, really doing well in youth and they have been always doing well in youth and this time also they have got a very good side,” he said.
“We have been following them and watching their games and we know them and their level. Accordingly, we will plan every match whether it is Vietnam or Uzbekistan or Japan. Our objective will be to win, of course, and get the maximum amount of the games and we will take it one match at a time.”
Having played in the 2017 under-17 FIFA World Cup as the default host, India had come agonisingly close to qualifying for the next edition of the tournament (in 2019) as Fernandes’ India played South Korea in the quarterfinal of the Asian Cup in 2018.
Korea, however, won the match 1-0, with forward Jeong Sang-bin scoring the winner.
“It’s been a long gap between 2018 and 2023 and (there has been) so much learning about the mistakes we did, especially, when it starts from the scouting programs and how we want to scout the players and what type of players are needed at this level,” he said.
“We have applied all that experience to this team. Yes, we made some mistakes along the way but still, we are getting better and better and you will see this group is much, much different from the previous groups.”
The Indian under-17 side has toured Spain and Germany in its preparations for the tournament.
It stunned Real Madrid’s youth side with a 3-3 draw in April and beat the under-16 side of Atletico Madrid 2-1 in May. In Germany, it then registered wins over the youth sides of Ausburg (u17) 3-1 and SSV Reutlingen 05 (u16) 6-1.
“The preparation we have this time (is that) we have played some of the world’s best teams. We wanted the boys to not only get ready physically but also trained their brains to get stronger and better,” Fernandes said.
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