King's Cup: Upbeat India ready for Curacao challenge
Head coach Igor Stimac said it will be important to see how the Indian team adapts to the new system.
Published : Jun 04, 2019 19:02 IST
India will face Curacao in the first match of the King's Cup on Wednesday, June 5. It will be Igor Stimac's first test as the Indian national team head coach.
"We can feel the excitement on the players' faces. They are excited about playing together for the first time as a group. I sincerely hope they will enjoy the football which we play," said Stimac.
The Croatian stated that it will be crucial as to how the team adapts to a new system. "We are not putting any pressure on the players. More than the result, it is more important to see how they have adapted to the stuff on which we have been working on, and how they have advanced."
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Captain Sunil Chhetri added that the team is confident ahead of the opening game. "The camaraderie between the players is really good. I'm glad to see the boys gelling well, pushing each other to getting better and inculcating a number of good habits."
"Tomorrow, it's more about how we play. We have to build a team and it's for us to show how we can play. The result is important but for us, it is critical to show how much we can assimilate the information given to us by the coach and produce it on the pitch."
Curacao is placed 82nd in FIFA rankings, better than India's position at 101. Stimac said it is a technically stronger team, but India will have to finish as a unit.
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"The Curacao players are experienced with a number of them playing in Europe. Technically, they are of a higher class than us on an individual basis.
"We need to draw the advantage as a team from it. We will have our chances and I hope the players will show up and finish the game as one unit," he said.
The match will kick off at 2 PM IST at the Chang Arena in Buriram. It will be telecast on Star Sports 3 and will be streamed live on Hotstar. Fans can also follow all updates on Sportstar 's live blog.