Malé: Former Indian player Renedy Singh claimed that with SAFF Championship win against Nepal, the Indian football team had asserted themselves as a power to be reckoned with in the region and will be getting better over the years.
“When you are playing against Bangladesh and Nepal, it will always be difficult to break them down. They don’t come out and give spaces. Nepal were never a problem earlier for India. They have improved and so have Bangladesh. However, they were beaten formidably in the final and it once again shows that India are still the dominant force in the SAFF region,” he stated.
India secured a convincing 3-0 victory over Nepal in the SAFF Championship 2021 finals with Skipper Sunil Chettri, FIFA U-17 World Cup fame Suresh Singh and 2019 AIFF Emerging player Sahal Abdul Samad on the score sheet for the Blue Tigers. Although the team had struggled in the first two matches against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka but picked up the pace against Nepal and Maldives . Taking about the campaign and the win , Renedy said,
“We absolutely dominated Nepal. We could have scored much earlier only if Sunil had kept the volley a bit low. In India, people were criticizing the team so much after the two games, but they peaked at the right time. It is the most important thing in a tournament like this.”
“I think in the first two matches India were shown too much respect, therefore it became difficult to break the opposition down. Whereas, Nepal thought that after a goalless first half they can open up and they got punished. Winning the SAFF Championship will boost the morale of the players. ”
“India were brilliant in the last two matches. They did not play many matches during the pandemic. Once the Covid gets over we need to get more matches. The Indian Super League (ISL) also will be having an extended calendar (from next year). Ultimately, the players must play for 10 months in a year, eight months at least,” expressed the former Mohun Bagan player.
However the former player had some words of advice for the current squad as they start preparing for the third round AFC ASIAN CUP QUALIFIERS . He claimed to believe that India need to work on counter attacking when they face defensively strong teams like Qatar.
“It is entirely different to play against Qatar. There we will be defending and attacking on the counter will be our weapon. You need different skill sets to do that. If we have to be more attacking then that is the way. Then you will also see that the margins of win will increase to 4-0 or 5-0 when we then play Nepal or Bangladesh.
“We have to try and get some matches before the AFC Asian Cup third-round qualifiers. Otherwise, it will be difficult. Although the players will be playing in ISL, I would like the team to at least play a couple of friendlies so that they can gel together,” he concluded.
