Just a week away from their opening match against USA in the Under-17 World Cup, India's U-17 coach Norton de Matos is concerned about the physical dominance of the sides they will face in their group and is planning to negate the disadvantage by playing organised football.
"Physicality of other teams is the reason why we try to work on playing in an organised manner," said de Matos, who was present with the whole squad at the Hero MotoCorp GenNext Heroes event here on Saturday. "In a one-on-one situation, our players have distinctive disadvantage, but we will try to reduce it with playing as a one unit and remain organised at the back and keep some possession. As long as we have possession, physicality won't matter," he added.
Matos is also aware that their opponents having taller players, than India, also make the hosts vulnerable during the dead-ball situations as he feels situations like these often decide the fate of the match in global competitions.
"The way we play at the moment, I am concerned about conceding free-kicks and corners as the height factor might give them an advantage and in tournaments like this many matches are won or lost through these kind of situations," explained the coach.
Matos refrained from predicting where his team will finish in this global extravaganza and warned how history is not on the side of India, which is debuting in a football World Cup for the first time. "I can't really predict that (India's outcome). We don't have easy games. World Cup has always the best teams of the continents. When I was in Egypt in 1997, New Zealand participated for the first time and lost 13-0 to Spain. But for the last five times (reaching Round of 16 on three occasions), they are always in the World Cup. It is fantastic for football as they grew from generation to generation.
"It is a similar chance for India to build from here and reduce the gap with other teams from here on gradually. And the objective in coming three-four years should be to match the big teams in Asia first. And from there we should look for bigger objectives. Ideally, it takes 8-10 years for proper development. Ten years from now, this bunch of players will be 27, which is the ideal way to play. They are the base for the future," illustrated the Portuguese tactician.
As the preparations are completed for the World Cup, Matos informed that they won't play any other friendly matches to keep their players injury free. "Now the most important thing is the mental preparation of the players. I aim to prepare them to enjoy each and every moment. On 6th October when they play in front of 40,000-50,000 crowds cheering them, they would be able to give their 200 per cent. And they must not be hounded by anxiety, they must believe in themselves," concluded Matos.
Meanwhile, Hero MotoCorp MD and CEO Pawan Munjal wished the team good luck for the tournament.