India's Under-23 football squad preparing for the Asian Games will have a mixture of training and exposure tours, including a two-week trip to the Czech Republic, national coach Wim Koevermans said here on Wednesday.
During a media interaction, before he set the ball rolling for the 20-day camp at the Football Stadium, Koevermans said he would try to help the team make an impact at the Incheon Games. "I've never been to the Asian Games but it's the Olympic Games of Asia. There's still a long time to go but I'm happy that we're in this situation, having the boys this long together. I cannot say anything about the rival teams but there will be very talented boys. Our aim is to get as far as possible and once we get to know our group I will try and get some video footage of our rivals," Koevermans said.
The former Dutch international, who took charge of the senior team on July 1, 2012, said he was looking forward to his chance to work with India's best youngsters. "It's a great opportunity for me as the national coach to get to know the U-23 players and to find how they behave and perform at a higher level. And also for the boys it's a great opportunity to be together for such a long time and travel to different parts of the world."All these players have already played in the I-league which is good. A few of them have played in various national youth teams and some of them, though U-22, have already played in the senior ranks and I'm looking forward to working with them," he said before taking charge of the first session which was made out of bounds for the reporters.
The coach said they have almost finalized a two-week trip to the Czech Republic. "We come back and play Pakistan U-23 team here in two matches. Then we probably go to China where we are trying to find some good teams to play," he said.
Koevermans also praised the seniors in the squad and said the youngsters would benefit training with the likes of India skipper Sunil Chhetri, Robin Singh and Francis Fernandes. "Sunil and Robin have scoreda lot of goals while Francis can play in any position in the midfield and upfront," he said.
At the last Asiad in Guangzhou India had advanced to the pre-quarters where they lost 0-5 to Japan. India had finished third in Group D which also had Qatar, Kuwait and Singapore.
Only two week trip to Czech Republic? What are they going to achieve in two weeks? Are they going to play against 2nd or 3rd division teams? What happened to Spain tour? I hope AIFF and coach are moving in the right direction.
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During a media interaction, before he set the ball rolling for the 20-day camp at the Football Stadium, Koevermans said he would try to help the team make an impact at the Incheon Games. "I've never been to the Asian Games but it's the Olympic Games of Asia. There's still a long time to go but I'm happy that we're in this situation, having the boys this long together. I cannot say anything about the rival teams but there will be very talented boys. Our aim is to get as far as possible and once we get to know our group I will try and get some video footage of our rivals," Koevermans said.
The former Dutch international, who took charge of the senior team on July 1, 2012, said he was looking forward to his chance to work with India's best youngsters. "It's a great opportunity for me as the national coach to get to know the U-23 players and to find how they behave and perform at a higher level. And also for the boys it's a great opportunity to be together for such a long time and travel to different parts of the world."All these players have already played in the I-league which is good. A few of them have played in various national youth teams and some of them, though U-22, have already played in the senior ranks and I'm looking forward to working with them," he said before taking charge of the first session which was made out of bounds for the reporters.
The coach said they have almost finalized a two-week trip to the Czech Republic. "We come back and play Pakistan U-23 team here in two matches. Then we probably go to China where we are trying to find some good teams to play," he said.
Koevermans also praised the seniors in the squad and said the youngsters would benefit training with the likes of India skipper Sunil Chhetri, Robin Singh and Francis Fernandes. "Sunil and Robin have scoreda lot of goals while Francis can play in any position in the midfield and upfront," he said.
At the last Asiad in Guangzhou India had advanced to the pre-quarters where they lost 0-5 to Japan. India had finished third in Group D which also had Qatar, Kuwait and Singapore.