Just curious, why can't we play against a real top class side and see where we stand? Or we are planning to do a magic carpet show in the AFC championship later this year?
What a club's senior team does in their league has nothing to do with how their youth teams play. Arsenal's u21s are in the "2nd division" in England while Sunderland's u21's nearly won the U21 league last year.
I don't know a lot about Scandinavian football, but perspective is certainly the right word used in the wrong context in this situation @EastBengalPride.
I agree teams with a stronger youth setup could be tried out, but that won't be to see where we stand. Last year, we played against the youth teams of Red Bull Salzburg as an example of a team with a very good youth setup, and lost narrowly, while we did very well against Bahrain and Lebanon in the AFC U16 qualifiers, and just last month beat FC Metz, who have an excellent youth setup.
It is consistency that we struggle with at this level. One other factor to be mindful is that fact that it is summer, and many league's local youth leagues will be closed but Norway has a different calendar and their league might be still alive, hence the decision to play them.
I thought Hendry was in the side during the AIFF Youth Cup?
Also agree with AG here, playing these sides are not bad. I am a little concerned that we do not play in many youth international tournaments or scrimmage tournaments, I always see the US, England etc. playing in those type of things at this level, as well as playing club teams. However, that is not the end of the world. These guys really look promising, more promising than the Dallas Cup batch.
Hendry Anthony was in the squad for the AIFF Youth Cup along with Naskar, Prabhushkan, Lalengmawia and the single named Narender (who AIFF decided not to give out his second name). I believe the kid was scouted from Mumbai but has roots in Kerala.
Actually, I think this group has had a good level of matches. Where I think we lack in is depth in the squad. The fact that we still continue scouting tells me they certainly feel they need to add players to the existing squad.
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I don't know a lot about Scandinavian football, but perspective is certainly the right word used in the wrong context in this situation @EastBengalPride.
I agree teams with a stronger youth setup could be tried out, but that won't be to see where we stand. Last year, we played against the youth teams of Red Bull Salzburg as an example of a team with a very good youth setup, and lost narrowly, while we did very well against Bahrain and Lebanon in the AFC U16 qualifiers, and just last month beat FC Metz, who have an excellent youth setup.
It is consistency that we struggle with at this level. One other factor to be mindful is that fact that it is summer, and many league's local youth leagues will be closed but Norway has a different calendar and their league might be still alive, hence the decision to play them.
Also agree with AG here, playing these sides are not bad. I am a little concerned that we do not play in many youth international tournaments or scrimmage tournaments, I always see the US, England etc. playing in those type of things at this level, as well as playing club teams. However, that is not the end of the world. These guys really look promising, more promising than the Dallas Cup batch.
Actually, I think this group has had a good level of matches. Where I think we lack in is depth in the squad. The fact that we still continue scouting tells me they certainly feel they need to add players to the existing squad.