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Ahead of home debut, Khalid Jamil promises attack from the start
India's head coach Khalid Jamil promises an attacking strategy in his home debut, aiming for victory against Singapore to boost Asian Cup qualification hopes.
Margao: In his first match as India head coach at home, Khalid Jamil has promised something he rarely does: attack from the start. Unless it is a ploy to set Singapore off on a tangent – such mind games are not uncommon on match day minus one media conference. Jamil also said he will ring in changes to the team that started last Thursday’s 1-1 draw away.
On five points after three matches, Singapore can afford a draw. Five points less than group leaders Hong Kong and three behind Singapore, India, on two points, cannot as only the group leaders will qualify for the 2027 Asian Cup. The best way to end this international window for India would be if Hong Kong and Singapore lose.
“The draw was a good, fair result for us. How we played in the last game with 10, we must continue,” Jamil said here on Monday. “This time we will do it with one extra player. We are playing at home and it will be very good to start in attack mode.”
For that India’s team will need to look different from how they did in Singapore. Jamil did not rule out making changes and in the 15 minutes of training open to the media, Lalengmawia Ralte was seen playing in front of the back four with Deepak Tangri.
“Mawia (Ralte) deserves to be back again,” said Jamil. “He has experience and I saw him do well in the last match (for Mohun Bagan Super Giant in the IFA Shield).” Asked if he should have got the 24-year-old allrounder of a midfielder when the international window opened – Mohun Bagan are loathe to release players otherwise – Jamil said: “Yes, maybe, but it is better that we use him now.”
In a rare moment of candour in a media conference replete with anodyne comments – the need to think positive in a home game underpinned most of what Jamil said – the India head coach accepted that the central midfield duo of Nikhil Prabhu and Macarton Louis could not “control” the midfield necessitating Tangri coming on in the 69th minute in Singapore.
Subhasish Bose trained alongside Muhammed Uvais and Jamil said the former’s inclusion – after a long time on the sidelines with injury during which Mohun Bagan and All India Football Federation (AIFF) argued in public about when he was injured and what was done by club and country to help him recover – was necessary “because we didn’t have an extra left-back and Sandesh Jhingan has been suspended for this tie.”
Singapore coach Gavin Lee said his team needs to overcome the hindsight bias of focusing too much on substitute Jordan Emaviwe’s backpass that led to Rahim Ali’s equaliser in the 90th minute.
“We can’t choose to avoid some of the not-so-nice emotions life deals us,” said the 37-year-old with a sports science degree. “We need to take pain and use it as fuel. Also, we need to remember that we had done enough to kill the game.” Mistakes happen, said Singapore forward Ilhan Fandi. “We need to bounce back. We won away to Bangladesh, why can’t we do it tomorrow?”
The last time India played Singapore at home, it was here and Renedy Singh’s penalty after Ashim Biswas was fouled fetched a 1-0 win. That was in 2004 and despite being ranked 31 places above, Singapore were decidedly second-best that February afternoon. In his role as assistant coach, former central defender Mahesh Gawli is the bridge between then and now.
The Nehru Stadium is in a South Goa locality of houses with red-tiled roofs where lanes slant away from the main road. On the east of the stadium, and within a few steps of each other, is the St Francis Xavier Chapel and a Damodar temple. A few metres away is a manzil. The setting seems appropriate given that India could do with any and every kind of divine intervention to revive a campaign this listless.
