INDIVIDUAL ERRORS COST US AGAINST NZ: CONSTANTINE

MUMBAI: Indian coach Stephen Constantine said the team’s 2-1 loss to New Zealand in the final group game of the Intercontinental Cup may have been a case of the players getting ‘carried away.’

India thumped Chinese Taipei 5-0 and beat Kenya 3-0 in the first two games of the four-nation tournament. Sunil Chhetri had contributed five goals. The India captain also scored against the Kiwis but it went in vain.

“When you win two games, you maybe get carried away,” Constantine told reporters at a post match press conference.

“New Zealand had young team but were well-disciplined. We made mistakes but didn’t start as well as we do. Individual errors cost us today.”

The Englishman made seven changes to India’s starting line-up from the first two matches, leaving key members such as Jeje Lalpekhlua, Sandesh Jhingan and Udanta Singh on the bench.

Constantine said he is using the event as a preparation for AFC competition. “The changes were bound to happen because we are using this tournament and any other games from here to Asian Cup as preparation for the AFC competition. We didn’t get the result we wanted but it was important that the youngsters got their chances,” explained

“We started with seven of the bench, you’re not going to have 11 Sandesh’s (Jhingan) or (Sunil) Chhetri’s. Some players didn’t take the opportunity to put themselves in the spotlight,” he added.

“We knew we were more or less in the final, unless we lost 4-0 or 5-0, which wasn’t going to happen. The job was done after the two matches. If I needed to take a point from this game, we would have got it,” Constantine said.