FiFA Women’s U17 World Cup: ‘India is much much better than this’: Head coach Thomas Dennerby reflects on ‘tough’ USA game
India head coach Thomas Dennerby admitted his side were no match against the United States after they suffered a 0-8 humiliation in their FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup opener but insisted the home side are capable of playing better.
Dennerby had claimed that India can compete against any team in the age-group showpiece, his comment coming on the basis of the tight match (1-3 loss) the team played against Sweden in the run-up to the tournament.
“I didn’t expect to concede so many goals because the defense has been pretty good when they played Sweden two and a half weeks ago. We defended very well, we had two shots on the crossbar and we created chances. But honestly where the USA was a level up even if you compare with Sweden at least,” the coach said on Tuesday.
Dennerby had said before the USA match that “if you can play a close game against Sweden, you can do it with any team in this tournament”.
Incidentally, Sweden did not qualify for the final round of the UEFA U-17 Championships, the European qualifying tournament for the FIFA event.
Dennerby had earlier said that India had prepared well for the U-17 World Cup. However, during an interaction with the media, he said that they have not played any side of the US standard in the run-up to the showpiece.
India U-17 team played against Romania (one draw and one loss), Italy (0-7 loss), Netherlands (1-5 loss), Sweden (1-3 loss), Chile (1-3 loss) and Mexico (0-2 loss) in the run-up to the event.
Of these countries, Romania, Italy and Sweden failed to qualify for the UEFA U-17 Championships. Chile and Mexico compete in the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
“Without a doubt, the USA is a really good side. If you look at the USA players, the skill, their speed, and you can’t find a weak point in their team. So far in the games we’ve played earlier this year, no team was up to it this level,” Dennerby said.
“We haven’t played against any team that sends in top quality corners and players who are about six feet tall who come in and jump very high and go with top quality,” the Swede added.
He said that the Indian team can do better and added that the players were nervous because of the big occasion.
“It was definitely very tough for us. But of course I also know that team India can play a bit better than this. My feeling is that the girls were a bit too nervous, couldn’t handle the situation because it was their first World Cup game,” he said .
“In the beginning, we didn’t even try to pass the ball to each other. There was something in the way, not comfortable enough to start playing. I yelled at the girls to start playing.
“After 3-0, it was for the USA to just play their game and have fun and it was tough for us. But the good thing is that there are two games left and I hope we can show everyone that India is much much better than like this. We can have a much better game than this one against Morocco.” India are in a difficult position to qualify for the quarter-finals from Group A, a goal Dennerby had set for the team before the tournament.
They play Morocco here on Friday. The African team had lost 0-1 to title contenders Brazil in another match on Tuesday. The top two teams from each of the four groups qualify for the quarter-finals.
“We will stick to our plan and try to win the next game and if we manage to do that there is still a chance. I hope we finish the tournament with points. We have a great chance to have a fair game with Morocco.
“When I saw the match between Brazil and Morocco, my personal feeling was that that match was played at a slightly lower tempo.” Dennerby had said before the tournament that India would be a difficult team to score against but the home team’s defense was just holding up against a furious USA.
“The funny thing is that for a very long time we didn’t concede a goal from set pieces. We’ve defended very well. To be honest I was a bit surprised that we used to be very sharp at defending set pieces but of course that wasn’t the case today.” “We’ve been working hard in camp, 14 to 17 hours a day for six months. We have to remember that if you look at the level today and six months before, it’s a huge difference. I haven’t lost a match in a championship or a tournament going 8-0 before. I don’t know what the worst result was before this.”
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