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2010 AFC Challenge Cup: We Must Learn From Our Mistakes - India Under-23 Defender Nirmal Chettri
The defender spoke to Goal.com…
26-Feb-2010 9:41:00 PM
By Amoy Ghoshal
The India Under-23 side were eliminated from the group stage of the 2010 AFC Challenge Cup after finishing bottom of Group A following three consecutive defeats.
After the SAFF Cup success, the tournament proved to be a major disappointment for Sukhwinder Singh’s boys but defender Nirmal Chettri feels that the failure in Sri Lanka will help them deal with future challenges in a better way.
Speaking to Goal.com, he said, “All of us are disappointed to return home early. After winning the SAFF Cup there were a lot of expectations from us but we failed to get the results in this tournament (AFC Challenge Cup).
“It never feels good to lose all the matches but let’s not forget that we played against some strong senior national teams. Therefore I feel the experience that we gained from this competition will help us in future."
When asked about the possible reasons for their poor showing, the Sikkimese defender opined that the injured players were missed badly and at the same time the fact that the squad wasn’t together for a long time didn’t help matters.
“We were missing quite a few players due to injury and that made it very difficult because we were short of midfielders so some of the lads had to play out of position.
“After the SAFF Cup, all the players returned to their clubs for domestic action. We trained together again for a short period in Pune so its not easy to get back that understanding.
“Overall I feel it’s wrong to give excuses because we had the ability to perform better but it just didn’t happen for us.”
The East Bengal player then talked about India’s performances and revealed that the game against Turkmenistan was their best showing.
“First game we didn’t start well and conceded two goals in the first half. In the second period we played really well but in the end it was too little too late.
“Our performance against Turkmenistan was undoubtedly our best in the tournament. We gave them a very good fight and were really unfortunate not to get anything from the game.
“Despite the defeat our coach was really impressed and even we players were satisfied with our improvement.
“We were obviously already out even before the last game against DPR Korea. But still we wanted a good result however the Koreans were a class apart and they outplayed us.”
The former Air India player added that the fact that two teams from their group are contesting the final on Saturday shows how tough it was for the young Indian side.
"DPR Korea and Turkmenistan deserve to be in the final. They are two good teams and even Kyrgyzstan were pretty strong so it shows that we were in a very difficult group."
Nirmal played the entire game against both Turkmenistan and DPR Korea as a center back. The 21 year old reckons that the effort was there from himself and his teammates but they must now build a killer instinct and learn quickly from the mistakes which they made in the AFC Challenge Cup.
“It was a big challenge for me to play as a center back against some talented Asian forwards. I feel I gave my best, in fact all the boys really tried hard. But at international level just giving 100 percent is not enough, experience is very important and now after two tournaments we are a more matured group.
“I think we have the players to do well in the Asian Games but we must develop a killer instinct and learn from our mistakes quickly,” he concluded.
After the SAFF Cup success, the tournament proved to be a major disappointment for Sukhwinder Singh’s boys but defender Nirmal Chettri feels that the failure in Sri Lanka will help them deal with future challenges in a better way.
Speaking to Goal.com, he said, “All of us are disappointed to return home early. After winning the SAFF Cup there were a lot of expectations from us but we failed to get the results in this tournament (AFC Challenge Cup).
“It never feels good to lose all the matches but let’s not forget that we played against some strong senior national teams. Therefore I feel the experience that we gained from this competition will help us in future."
When asked about the possible reasons for their poor showing, the Sikkimese defender opined that the injured players were missed badly and at the same time the fact that the squad wasn’t together for a long time didn’t help matters.
“We were missing quite a few players due to injury and that made it very difficult because we were short of midfielders so some of the lads had to play out of position.
“After the SAFF Cup, all the players returned to their clubs for domestic action. We trained together again for a short period in Pune so its not easy to get back that understanding.
“Overall I feel it’s wrong to give excuses because we had the ability to perform better but it just didn’t happen for us.”
The East Bengal player then talked about India’s performances and revealed that the game against Turkmenistan was their best showing.
“First game we didn’t start well and conceded two goals in the first half. In the second period we played really well but in the end it was too little too late.
“Our performance against Turkmenistan was undoubtedly our best in the tournament. We gave them a very good fight and were really unfortunate not to get anything from the game.
“Despite the defeat our coach was really impressed and even we players were satisfied with our improvement.
“We were obviously already out even before the last game against DPR Korea. But still we wanted a good result however the Koreans were a class apart and they outplayed us.”
The former Air India player added that the fact that two teams from their group are contesting the final on Saturday shows how tough it was for the young Indian side.
"DPR Korea and Turkmenistan deserve to be in the final. They are two good teams and even Kyrgyzstan were pretty strong so it shows that we were in a very difficult group."
Nirmal played the entire game against both Turkmenistan and DPR Korea as a center back. The 21 year old reckons that the effort was there from himself and his teammates but they must now build a killer instinct and learn quickly from the mistakes which they made in the AFC Challenge Cup.
“It was a big challenge for me to play as a center back against some talented Asian forwards. I feel I gave my best, in fact all the boys really tried hard. But at international level just giving 100 percent is not enough, experience is very important and now after two tournaments we are a more matured group.
“I think we have the players to do well in the Asian Games but we must develop a killer instinct and learn from our mistakes quickly,” he concluded.
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