Cambodia aren't fearsome of Indian challenge, asserts Hirose Ryu

The Angkor Warriors captain also talked about his team's defence ahead of the game against the Blues.

India are to face Cambodia in the first game of the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers. The two teams are grouped with Hong Kong and Afghanistan as they bid for a place in the megaevent. 

Cambodia's head coach Hirose Ryu along with defender Soeuy Visal met with the media to talk about the upcoming game against the Indian national team.

Hirose Ryu's thoughts on the game

The Cambodian head coach believes his team is ready for the game and hopes for a favourable result against the higher-ranked opponents. He also is content with his team's training sessions and performance in the training.

“We are in a good place. We think we’ve had good preparations before coming to India. Hopefully, we will have the necessary result tomorrow,” the joint-head coach of the Cambodian National Team exclaimed.

Keisuke Honda’s role and Japanese connection to Cambodia?

Hirose Ryu was questioned about the connection of the Japanese duo of him and Keisuke Honda with the Cambodian team and what influenced them to take over the Angkor Warriors.

“So I don’t think about any connection between the two nations, but we have a history together. My former players in the past were with Cambodians and influenced me to join the Cambodia national team,” the 66-year-old answered.

Playing against India in the first match a disadvantage?

As aforementioned, India are a higher-ranked nation than Cambodia in the FIFA rankings. But Hirose Ryu knows that the rankings don't determine the results and the performance does. The 66-year-old tactician hopes for an inspiring performance from his team.

“Previously we have lost to India in a couple of games, but we are not fearsome of India of any disadvantage. That doesn’t matter, we will have to play our best to get a result tomorrow,” Hirose Ryu commented.

Domestic structure of Cambodian football

The Cambodian first division league has just eight teams in it. And the players called up for the national camp have a majority from the teams that didn't win the league in the latest edition. The Japanese was asked if it bothers him that the team is full of players who didn't win the league.

“Our league switched. There are just 8 teams in the league and some players from the champion team were called to the national team. But that doesn’t matter because even if they weren’t in a champions team, they could’ve been in the national team. It’s the overall performance that matters, not the champions aspect. Indian players are more physical than us, but we will need to find a solution to deal with this format,” the tactician explained.

Assessment of Chhetri & co

The joint head coach of the Cambodian team was asked if he knows how the Indian team plays. He was further questioned on the capabilities of the Indian forwards. However, Hirose Ryu didn't give much to the media.

“Obviously I don’t know which formation the Indian manager uses, but we have to fight against them to win against them. We will see what is going on with the strike force in the game,” the former head coach of the Chinese national team quipped.

Are Thierry Bin, and Sieng Chanthea with the squad?

Speaking on the availability of some of the key veterans and a couple of youngsters, Hirose Ryu explained that his team has the key players available. He also noted that the players don't have a lot of experience playing in the foreign leagues.

“We don’t really have a lot of players in the squad that are well trained or playing in other nations. They are some of the key players for us, but we’ll see tomorrow about their availability for the game,” he noted.

Cambodia's games coming into the match

Cambodian national team have not played a lot of games this year. The team has played one WC Qualifier and four AFF Cup games this year. They also played a few friendlies to prepare for the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers.

“We played just one game before this one this year. We play an AFF cup in which we played 4 games and then we played a few games for these qualifiers too,” Hirose Ryu said.

Thoughts on his leaky defence

In the games they have played this year, the defence has not looked solid. They have conceded far too many goals for the coach's liking. But he believes the leaky defence is because of the team adapting to a new system.

“We don’t really have too many clean sheets, but compared to our previous years, obviously our squad is adapting to a lot of changes to the system. We have played a lot fewer games as compared to other Asian countries. In the future, we have to think about how we can give our 100% going forward.”

Captain Soeuy Visal's thoughts on the game

The Cambodian captain and defender Soeuy Visal was with the head coach at the press conference. And he was asked about his thoughts on the game.

“We will play the first game against India tomorrow and we haven’t played against them in a long time. They will play a confident and trust in coach’s tactics. We’ll follow the way needed to win the game for the Cambodian people,” the captain hopes.

Focus on the defence

Soeuy Visal will be asked to steady the defence against India. And he believes in his coach's wisdom to get the team through the difficult challenge of the Indian national team.

“India are a higher ranking team and have really experienced players. This time we can’t say we play defensive and attack or vice-versa. We'll play with 100% confidence and will follow the coach’s tactics and then everyone will see tomorrow about how we will play. We will enjoy the game, even a draw will be a pleasing result for us,” the 26-year-old noted.

For more football updates, follow Khel Now on Twitter, and Instagram and join our community on Telegram.