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Mandalay (Myanmar), April 8
The Indian women’s football team will have to come out all guns blazing against a formidable Myanmar side in a must-win final round-robin game of the 2020 Olympics Qualifying tournament here tomorrow.
India will need to win the encounter in order to proceed to the next round, while a draw will be enough for the hosts to qualify with a better goal-difference.
Both India and Myanmar are on six points from two games but Myanmar enjoy a better goal-difference of +8 compared to India’s +4. India beat Indonesia 2-0 in the opening game followed by a 3-1 win against Nepal.
However, India will miss the services of their dependable first goalkeeper Aditi Chauhan, who is out with injury. “When I was appointed the head coach of the senior team, I knew the challenges we faced,” India coach Maymol Rocky said.
“I knew things needed to be changed and the first change was to bring down the average age of the team. That could only have been done by focusing on the youth, aiming to create a squad for the future which can be the mainstay of the national team for years to come,” she added.
“When I look back and realise the average age of this squad is 21, I pinch myself often. Is it real? Or is it a dream? This bunch of 20 girls is just one win away from creating history. The batch has grown drastically — not only as players, but most importantly as human beings,” she added.
Rocky is happy that her young team has peaked at the right time and has the ability to beat Myanmar in their den. “In the 14 international matches that these girls have played in the span of three months, each one of them has displayed that they are capable of greatness. We won the SAFF Championship in Nepal, playing against the hosts in the final while the crowd was booing us,” she said. — PTI
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