The Indian football team underwent training on the artificial turf of the HTC Sports Academy on Saturday to get accustomed to the surface ahead of back-to-back 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Afghanistan and Oman.
The players engaged in a passing session followed by a short stretching session under strength and conditioning coach Luka Radman. The medical team was seen monitoring and taking notes of all players who were present.
The squad is scheduled to depart from India on Monday. Following the game against Afghanistan on November 14, they will travel to Muscat to cross swords with Oman on November 19.
Coach Igor Stimac emphasised the importance of working on players' 'movement and passing' in the lead up to the qualifiers.
“There is a long travel in front of us, a different climate and a match on an artificial pitch,” he said.
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“It’s most important that we are together now and are concentrating on the upcoming games. We need to work on the players’ movements and passing. These days of training will be extremely crucial to stay on top of our preparation against Afghanistan,” Stimac stated.
Adil Khan, Amrinder Singh, Sarthak Golui, Raynier Fernandes, Vinit Rai, Sahal Abdul Samad, Brandon Fernandes, Mandar Rao Dessai, Jackichand Singh, Manvir Singh, Seiminlen Doungel and Subhasish Bose have reported to the camp while others will join in the next couple of days.
“It is an away game, so we have to be more cautious and utilise the opportunities that we get. We are monitoring all the players and we’ll fix our strategy accordingly,” Stimac added.
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