Nicolai promises ‘better attitude’ in India’s ‘second chance’

Team India will have its ‘second chance’ at making a mark in the AIFF Youth Cup when it takes on United States of America in the Youth Cup and coach Nicolai wants the young Indians to make a real big statement and show the "right attitude".

Coach Nicolai Adam talks to the Indian team after a practice session.

“We just lost 3-1 to Tanzania. If I am honest, I have no problems admitting that we could have lost by a bigger margin,” said Youth Team Coach Nicolai Adam about the team's performance in the on-going AIFF Youth Cup. “

Our body language was bad, especially in the second half (against Tanzania) and it gave the impression that we didn’t want much,” said the gaffer. “But Football God has been kind and has given us a second chance.”

Team India will have its ‘second chance’ when it takes on United States of America in the Youth Cup and coach Nicolai wants the young Indians to make a real big statement and show the “right attitude”.

“I promise the boys will give their best against USA. They will show their best attitude on the pitch. I reiterate it wasn’t right in the second half in our last match,” said the confident coach

Excerpts from a quick conversation with Nicolai Adam:

Question:How do you assess USA?

Answer: They are a dominating team. They will come hard at us.

Will two days of extra rest be an added advantage for them?

You also need to remember that they flew into India and are trying to overcome the 12 hour difference in time zone.

The kids are a bit nervous wanting to deliver in front of the home crowd. This is also a learning process for them. We have the AFC U-16 Finals coming up and then the U-17 World Cup. We need to be able to deliver at a high level in front of home crowd in India. It’s a psychological aspect which they have to learn.

USA had played Tanzania inits first match of the Tournament and it had ended 1-1. It also came to the AIFF Youth Cup after a triumph in a Youth Tournament in Europe.

We have two back to back games against USA and then Korea Republic. They would be extremely difficult. But that’s the purpose of the entire Tournament — to understand where we stand.

We are clearly not the favourites in the Tournament and have our goal defined — to finish among the top four. If we even finish fourth, we get to play five matches. An extra match at this level is always a bonus.

When we went to Germany we played almost same quality of opposition. But we had adequate match practice prior to playing them. It’s difficult to pick up the speed in youth Football when they boys go for a month-long break.

The beauty of football is that you can mess up but two days later you get a chance to do something better.