The more we play better teams, the better our preparations will be, opines Sunil Chhetri

The national team captain addressed members of the media in an engaging interaction.

The recent performances of the Indian Football team in the recently concluded SAFF Championship has garnered attention and optimism towards Indian Football. The higher-ranked nations from the continent have taken note of the performances of Blue Tigers, especially against Kuwait and Lebanon.

The SAFF Championship was an ideal start to the AFC Asian Cup preparation which is scheduled to take place in January next year. The MVP of the SAFF Championship, Sunil Chhetri, spoke to the media in an interaction organized by the All India Football Federation where he spoke about the winning Hero Intercontinental Cup and the SAFF Championship and various other topics.

Thoughts on winning the Intercontinental Cup and the SAFF Championship.

The captain started off his interaction with the media by saying, “It was tedious and a long camp and that is why you saw the kind of jubilation around. It was over 50 days of hard work and what made it difficult was it was at the end of the season where a lot of boys were completely spent (tired).

"The clubs who had played in ISL, then we went to Manipur and then we played the Super Cup and during our first day in Odisha I could see some of them were tired and from there on we talked amongst ourselves and take it one day at a time and I am very happy that everyone chipped in and everyone worked hard and now we are sitting together talking about the two trophies and how we applied ourselves.”

On proposal of participating in CAFA tournament

The AIFF is eyeing the possibility to play in Central Asian Football Association tournaments Sunil Chhetri gave his on the topic and said, “I like the proposal and it is only on the basis of we are going to get to play slightly better teams and that is without disrespecting the SAFF region teams.

"I have been saying this from a fairly long time that SAFF Championships should be more of sending our U-23, U-21 sides without disrespecting anyone as that will only give them more exposure." Furthermore, he added, “I welcome this move by the President and the Coach (of playing in CAFA) purely on the fact that we will get to play better teams since we are improving little by little as a team.”

Views on having longer preparatory camps for the National Teams

The national team head coach Igor Stimac and goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu spoke of having a longer preparatory camps especially before the Asian Cup in order to be ready for the tournament. Sunil Chhetri shared his perspective in detail and said, “For a team like ours we know we are going to pay Australia, Uzbekistan and Syria (in the group stages) and that is why both the gentlemen spoke that we get it.

"What happens when we are playing all the players are used to playing ISL but let’s be honest when we play Australia we will need a couple if not more level high than we are playing in ISL, and when we meet together we know this and we train together it helps a little bit and that is the reason why we will require longer camps.

"And (also) if we can get the top 7 teams in Asia to play a friendly and I am not saying in anything who we are going to play as the coach decides everything but if we can get a Iran or Japan or a Saudi we will get a very good picture and we will be ready and that is why four weeks is important.

"When we play Iraq in a month’s time we get the Idea how Uzbekistan is. We played Kuwait and Lebanon so we get an idea how Syria plays although Syria is a bit level higher and let’s say if we cannot get top 5-6 teams in Asia we will not get to know how Australia will be and that is the reason why 4 weeks camp these gentlemen have asked for.

Eventually how many days we will get depends on all the talks but I hope we get as much time as possible,” the national team captain further quipped.

Playing Iraq in the Kings Cup

India take on heavyweights Iraq in the Kings Cup in September and the Indian Star is ready to take on the West Asian giants. “I cannot wait" he said. Further commenting on fixture he answered, “In these kind of games, you want to do well and it gives you reality check.

"When in SAFF when you play Kuwait and Lebanon you see those teams are different. They come with a different problems. They give you different teams to think about. Especially on our route to think about Uzbekistan, Syria, and Australia. The more we play better teams, the better our preparations will be. I am looking forward to it. It is going to be tough but we can’t wait.”  

Realistic expectation from the Asian Cup and World Cup qualifiers

The recent performances of  the national team have brought in a wave of enthusiasm and expectations with the national team. When questioned about the realistic expectations from the upcoming Asian cup and World Cup qualifiers Sunil Chhetri replied, “ I am not sure what exactly are my expectations because I have said this before and the way I am and I don’t know how much can we achieve but one thing I will tell you, is that with this team we will keep it like this. Only the short-term targets and that’s not going to stop what we are doing. What happens is once we start winning games, we will keep this short-term targets.”

“When we play these kind of teams, teams like Iraq, Uzbekistan, Syria we know where we stand, the whole country knows where we stand. The new football fans now understand the maths the top 4-5 play the world cup now it will 8-9, so they know that we are going to rub shoulders with them and we are not getting ahead of ourselves but the limelight you see today we are liking it and everyone involved with Indian football i.e. the players, the clubs, the AIFF, the fans and media are under invisible pressure right now which is good, ” he elaborated.