India seek Chhetri’s leadership to tame ‘Lions of Khorasan’ in final
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The first morning of the year and the ambience in the team hotel is one of camaraderie. The players of India and Afghanistan, having secured their place in the final, arrive for breakfast at the same time. After some reticence, they begin to mingle and exchange pleasantries before retiring to their rooms.
There will be no room for bonhomie on Sunday when they line up for their third successive SAFF Cup title clash at the Greenfield Stadium here on Sunday.
Fortunes have fluctuated. India won in 2011 and Afghanistan will be defending the title they won in 2013. Going into the final, the advantage is with the team dubbed the Lions of Khorasan. India face a Herculean task as they bid to dismantle the stronger opposition for their seventh title that will help regain regional supremacy.
For that to happen though, India will have to be defensively tight and accurate in their passing. Coach Stephen Constantine feels the Afghans will start favourites due to the presence of Europe-based players. “They have 15 players who play mostly in
Europe. There is a huge gap between Asian and European players,” he said.
“We will fight from the first to the last minute.
If we play at our best and they don’t have a good day, we can win,” he said in an attempt to motive his players while bringing the opposition under pressure. India are 166th in the Fifa rankings while Afghanistan are 150.
For India, a lot will depend on how skipper Sunil Chhetri performs. He has been in the thick of things so far, the focal point behind every positive move of the hosts.
He has started on the left, moved to the centre and on occasions played on the right flank as well. With experience, he has learnt what is expected of him and the constant shifting doesn’t faze him anymore.
“Initially, the different roles irked me. But as you mature, you realise why managers choose to play you in a certain position. As a forward, I would only think about attack, but playing on the flanks helped hone my defensive game as well,” he recently told HT.
SUPPORT FOR CHHETRI Constantine feels others around Chhetri will also have to bring their A-game on Sunday. “Sunil is an important player as all the others, including the substitutes. One is useless without the other. If Sunil plays well and the others don’t, he won’t get much of the ball,” he said.
They will be required to be fluent in their attacks and be more assertive than they have been, against an Afghan side that has let in just one goal in the tournament. At the other end, they have scored 16 goals and that will be a concern for India’s defence that has looked shaky whenever it has come under pressure.
“I hope we don’t make the silly mistakes we made in the semifinal. It is going to be a very difficult game as they can score goals and we need to be careful,” said Constantine.