After India’s group-stage exit within the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup in October final 12 months, head coach Thomas Dennerby harassed the necessity to have all age-group groups collectively.
“In a big country like India, it could be a good thing to have an AIFF Academy where we can have the best players – from the Under-17, Indian Arrows, Under-19 and the senior teams practising together, seeing each other and having role models,” he had mentioned.
That dream – to some extent – has been materialised in Chennai because the U-17, U-20 and the senior groups have been introduced underneath the identical roof, with coaches of all three sides co-ordinating the progress of Indian soccer.
“It is super important. The U-17 is just here (very recently), so I did not have much time to go and see them. But what I understood is that coaching staff are exchanging experiences and opinions,” Dennerby advised Sportstar in an unique interview.
“So, if we are looking for, say a right-back, in the senior team, we check (after consulting the coaches) if there are worthy players in the lower age-group teams.
And who knows, when the U-20 side is done with AFC Qualification in March, maybe some players, who do well there, can arrive in the senior team to be there and fight for Olympic qualification,” he added.
‘Small things on the international stage punish you directly’
The ladies’s U-20 group suffered a 1-3 loss to Nepal within the SAFF Championship this month and can look to show its fortunes, underneath head coach Maymol Rocky, on the AFC Qualifiers in Vietnam.
The group – primarily comprising the squad that performed the U-17 World Cup underneath Dennerby – is drawn with Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore and can begin its qualification marketing campaign towards Singapore on March 7.
“Small things on the international stage punish you directly. I think all the girls in the World Cup squad – when I met them then and now, around January 8, I think they have learnt a lot from that experience,” Dennerby mentioned, speaking concerning the ladies.
FILE PHOTO: India U-17 Women’s Football Team standing alongside Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik throughout the nationwide anthem on the Kalinga stadium forward of a FIFA Under-17 ladies’s World Cup match on October 11, 2022.
| Photo Credit: BISARANJAN ROUT
“It was a tough experience, we lost three games and it is easy to start questioning yourself. But I feel most girls took the experience in a good way.”
However, the plan of getting a conjoined pool of gamers shouldn’t be a long-term plan, AIFF normal secretary Shaji Prabhakaran advised Sportstar.
“These (combined camps) are not a long-term plan. We arranged this surrounding the senior team, which is supposed to play against Nepal in Chennai,” mentioned Shaji.
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“The main intention of the camps was to inspire more local communities to get into the sport and definitely, there are a number of Tamil Nadu players who are coming forward (for the Indian team).
But there are some logistical challenges and issues of having long-term combined camps in Chennai, so we will shift to separate camps soon,” he added.
Sources from Tamil Nadu Football Association additional revealed that the mixed camps will probably be as much as May 2023.
A packed 12 months for girls’s soccer in India
This 12 months is ready to be an especially busy 12 months for girls’s soccer in India, for all of the age-group groups.
While the U-20 group will probably be in motion in Vietnam, the U-17 group will strive its luck on the under-17 SAFF Championship in Bangladesh subsequent month, the place a brand new opponent awaits.
Russia will characteristic within the event for the primary time after being banned by the UEFA and FIFA and is scheduled to play India on March 28. The group will then journey to Kyrgyzstan to play Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan for qualification within the AFC Asian Cup within the under-17 class.
India U-17 Women’s Football group coach Thomas Denner throughout a coaching session.
| Photo Credit: R.Okay. NITHIN
The senior group, however, has the Gold Cup, the Olympic Qualifiers, and Asian Games lined up later this 12 months.
Clubbed alongside Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan, the Blue Tigresses will play a minimum of 5 pleasant video games earlier than the qualifiers, the top coach mentioned. India, which has received simply as soon as in seven matches on the Asian Games, will look to alter historical past when it travels to Hangzhou.
As the three groups (U-17, U-20 and senior groups) scatter after mixed camps for about six months, it is going to be fascinating to see whether or not Dennerby – the mastermind who guided Sweden to the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup bronze medal – was proper about his thought of coaching or will a brand new daybreak usher in for the way forward for ladies’s soccer within the nation.
For now, it’s carpe-diem for Indian ladies footballers within the port-city of Tamil Nadu.
