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'We need to beat higher placed teams to improve our FIFA Rankings' - Wim Koevermans
After the Indian team snatched a 4-0 victory against Guam, India's Dutch coach was happy with the performance, but also stressed that there were still areas left to improve upon..
India notched up their second consecutive win in the AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers on Monday, when they defeated relative minnows, Guam by an impressive 4-0 margin. Wim Koevermans, the coach of the Indian National football team was jubilant with his team’s display.The Dutchman said that everybody had expected India to win the encounter easily and was happy that his team had played up to the expectations.
“Yes, there was expectation from everyone. But it adds extra pressure for the players. We were in the driver’s seat after we went 2-0 up. Once you score the first goal and then get another one in quick succession, the opposition is most likely to break down.But I have all the respect for the Guam guys, who fought really hard. There were many more chances created. But, that’s what football is. You have to put the ball into the net to get the credit. But anyways, I am happy with the result.”
Koevermans also denied the allegation that the first goal was from an offside position. He expressed his opinion that all these incidents are part of the game and they themselves had been at the receiving end quote a few times. Wim, however looked concerned about the number of miss passes that his team had played.
“I told the boys that we have to improve in that aspect. We were very sloppy at times and gave away the ball. These things should not happen in the coming matches,” he added.
“Our aim was to seal three points. The start was not good for us. The first chance of the match came in the way of Guam when they hit the post in the early minutes. This was a real shocker for our side. However, the boys recovered well and as the game went on, we had more control over the proceedings. The best part of this match is that we created so many chances. Looking at the number of chances created, we could have scored 10 goals today," claimed the coach.
Now with Myanmar and Chinese Taipei playing out a 1-1 draw, India only need a point against Myanmar in the last group game on Wednesday, but Koevermans wanted nothing less than a win to seal their progress.
“Yes, I think we can win that fixture. That will be a very interesting encounter. But I guess we have the potential. Also, we need to beat the higher placed teams in order to go up in the FIFA rankings. I hope that we will be able to keep up the tempo," he signed off.
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