Kolkata : Russia outclassed India 8-0 at Kishore Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata in 2nd FIFA Women’s International Friendly. Indian Head Coach Crispin Chhetri criticized India’s attitude and focused need to have physicality.
In first half, India conceded 5 goals while in 2nd half 3 goals. Russia not only toyed with Indian defense comprised of young players but also physically overpowered them.
Crispin Chhetri stated that lack of attitude in the game was the factor that made him unhappy.
“Bitter pill to swallow, this is the phase we have to go through . We give chances in starting xi to few players but I think they lacked attitude, it wont happen in a day, takes time to build up attitude. Last time we did not do things which were in our control so not worried about scoreline but the character and attitude of the players – I was really unhappy with it”, Chhetri added.
Chhetri also stated that not being physically overpowered can cost matches against strong opponents like Uzbekistan and Russia, he especially pointed out talent like Sulanjana Raul of East Bengal.
”We cannot have players who does not have physicality, if you want to grow , compete with European players maybe for that we need to have different breed of players. Players like Sulanjana might be good against lower ranked teams who are not physically good but when you play against teams like Uzbekistan , Russia, she wont be nowhere. That’s my job to scout players for different teams how we can create different pool of players. We are in a right process and we will have positive results”, said Chhetri.
However, Chhetri also took note of few positive things like winning patches of individual battles, good performances of players like Malati Munda, Malavika, Dhurga Pherumal, Juli Kishan. The team also didn’t have players from senior teams like those who won SAFF 2026. Therefore, he remains positive of the next core group, getting young bunch of players to groom, and stated importance to believe and support the players for better performance.
“Few of the players did good job like Malati Munda had been terrific , Juli was good even today Dhurga was good enough. We have to continue to start believing in them , they dont believe in themselves but if you start believing in them they will start performing also. By next year we will have a core group for our AFC”, stated Chhetri.
“Being a national team coach is challenging because you want your players together , we did not have 7 players starting in SAFF so you always want that core to be with you. If 5-10 days before FIFA window I get players from all clubs , it will help me”
“We hoped for things to happen, conceded in 2nd half not because of them but our mispasses, we want to build certain philosophy , right now conceding goal is not a problem but how we want to play and give confidence to players is much important. Lets not judge players by FIFA Ranking and start supporting them”, he continued.
Besides pointing out positive note of winning small patches in the game with higher Ranked Russia by 69th ranked India, Chhetri also focused on lack of leaders in the current team said, “We wanted to press high unlike last match hence we opened up the game. But in certain patches we won battles so it shows if we are willing to do good we can do but saying to what hard work we put on for last 20 days it did not show on the field so think it will take time to change the mindset, only talent will take you to certain stage but we need to have leaders to take beyond that so this group have talent but no leaders because there are no seniors and after 3 months of break to some extent we did do good but now when IWL starts in next window, you can see the same players doing better “.
