Midfielder Suresh Singh Wangjam insists the team would have to be more clinical while going forward and just defending through out the 90 minutes wont help them score points in the remaining two Group A encounters against Columbia and Ghana in the Fifa Under-17 World Cup.
Speaking to the media after Saturday’s practice session, Wangjam made it clear that even though they were boxed in their own half for long parts of the first period during their opening game against US, the idea wasn’t to keep defending for the 90 minutes.
“You can’t defend for the full 90 minutes. When they attacked, our backline did well in getting back and defending. But we need to improve on our final pass. We have to make more passes to the striker. That is something we’re working on,” said Wangjam.
Asked about the US game and its side-effects on the team’s preparations, Wangjam said the 3-0 scoreline was not good but it was part of the game and that the team had already put that loss behind them.
“We were not nervous. We were very excited. Sunil Chhetri himself told us that he would give 15 years of his career to play at a World Cup. It was a big occasion, the first time we played in front of 45, or was it 60 thousand? This is a World Cup in India. We enjoyed the moment,” he said denying that pressure got to the team in the opening encounter.
The Manipuri midfielder also admitted that besides the final pass, they had 3-4 chances to score but missed them and that the team should be more clinical in front of goal.
Speaking about the first half, the midfielder said the first goal changed the equation for the Indian team. “Before the match, our plan was to defend in our own half and counter-attack. We wanted to get to half-time 0-0 or with the lead. The goal was the turning point.”
The 16-year old refused to comment when asked if competitive experience was lacking in the squad but did talk about the fact that the World Cup is played at a high level where all mistakes were likely to be punished, “At this level, when you make a small mistake, they punished us. We saw that yesterday when we were on the attack but ended up conceding a goal.”
India’s number 6 was all praise for the defence a day after US coach John Hackworth had commended India on their defensive organisation, “Our defence and goalkeeper were very well organised. They played really well.”
Having played against Colombia in Mexico City, Suresh said their other games would be tougher and that the South Americans would be more physical, and that the team would have to work harder to get a result, especially since their opponents too are yet to register a point.
Boris Thangjam missed the first game through suspension, and Suresh said he was looking forward to the right-back’s return as the former has “good pace” and can put “passes through”.