Indians hope to sign off with fighting show against Ghana
KEY PLAYERS Much will depend on the midfield prowess of Jeakson Singh and Dheeraj Singh’s form under the bar
It has been a tournament to remember for the Indian football team. The youngsters have exceeded all expectations with their performances on the field and the Amarjit Singh-led side has drawn praise from experts and supporters alike.
However, the results have not gone their way till now and the hosts will be looking to keep their chances of reaching the FIFA U-17 World Cup knockout stage alive when they face Ghana in the final Group A tie on Thursday.
The hosts can still mathematically reach the next round, but it will take a lot of factors to go right for the youngsters on Thursday.
If India win their game against Ghana by four goals or more and USA beat Colombia by a big margin, they can qualify for the Round of 16 as the second-placed side from the group. They can also qualify as the third team from the group if they fail to beat Ghana by the required margin, but it will be a long shot for Luis Norton De Matos’ boys.
“We will go for nothing less than a win. We have shown that we belong on the same page as the other teams in our group and now we want to show that we can win against them. We will give it our all and aim to create history,” Matos said on the eve of the tie.
“Ghana are possibly the strongest team in the group and our biggest challenge will be to stop the two wingers from making those dangerous runs into the box,” he added.
The coach made a lot of changes to the side after their 0-3 loss against Colombia and it worked wonders for the hosts.
Starting with a 4-1-4-1 formation, he employed Jeakson Singh to provide extra support to the defenders and they were able to maintain their shape under pressure. The strategy did not allow the Colombian strikers to find any space and with Ghana relying mainly on their wingers, Matos will be looking to use the same formation against the Black Starlets.
Goalkeeper Dheeraj Singh has been the star performer for India. The Manipur-born custodian has impressed with his saves and, during his team’s practice session on Wednesday, his focus was again on saving long-range shots as he made two of his teammates take kicks from outside the box.
Jeakson, who became the first Indian to score in a FIFA tournament, will also play a key role as the defensive midfielder.
He was responsible for providing a lot of key balls to the attacking players against Colombia, and with Abhijit Sarkar and possibly Suresh Singh making dangerous runs into the opposition box, it will be his duty to maintain stability at the heart of the Indian midfield.
However, there was some bad news for the hosts as skipper Amarjit and centre-back Anwar Ali missed practice due to injuries. Both were engaged in a deep conversation with the physio and with the coach hinting at some possible new faces in the line-up, it seems that both may miss Thursday’s game.
“Amarjit and Anwar Ali are currently in conditional training and tomorrow, we will be able to take a call on whether they will play the game or not. However, there will be some fresh legs in the starting XI tomorrow.”
Ghana are currently third in the group with a win and a loss. They were in tremendous form in their first game against Colombia, but a loss against USA affected their momentum. With three points, they need a win to qualify for the knockout.