E-Paper
Team in transition but showing progress
MUMBAI: Indian football is in a state of transition as confirmed by national team head coach Stephen Constantine and many of the senior international players. Since
MUMBAI: Indian football is in a state of transition as confirmed by national team head coach Stephen Constantine and many of the senior international players. Since taking over the squad 18 months ago, Constantine has given 30 players their international debuts.
The match against Puerto Rico on Saturday was the stage for two players to make their senior team bows as Germanpreet Singh and Daniel Lalhimpuia came on in the second half to wear the Blue Tigers jersey for the first team in an official match.
Speaking ahead of the match, Constantine confirmed that senior players who weren’t working hard enough would be excluded from the squad as had been done for this friendly.
“There are one or two players who are not here for A, B or C reasons. They didn’t do enough or they were injured,” Constantine said when asked about exclusions for the match.
“We have tried to make a pool of players where in every position it is a bit of a headache (to choose who to play).
“I think we have a squad for the next five-six years from these boys.”
When asked about injured senior players who might return to the squad, like Robin Singh who is training in Brazil with the FC Goa team, Constantine said: “Robin is returning from the ACL injury that occurred in the SAFF Championships. We have been monitoring all the national team players that are injured — Anthony D’Souza, Dhanpal Ganesh, Robin and several others.”
