Team Herald
VASCO: The AIFF Youth Cup will kick off on Sunday, which is a huge fillip for the participating teams — USA, South Korea, Tanzania, Malaysia and hosts India to test their footballing tenacity and progress, all in their mission to gear up or the FIFA 2017 U-17 World Cup in 2017.
Speaking at the official pre-tournament press conference, Seo Hyowon, Head Coach of Korea Republic stated that the Korean team is still looking for value addition in the squad and the AIFF Youth Cup helps identify weak spots.
“We trained for 10 days before coming to this tournament and this cup will certainly help us to gain experience whilst letting us to identify our weaknesses, so we can work on them,” he said.
“We are still in a phase of finalising our final squad for the FIFA U-17 World Cup (to be held in India) and we are still looking for players.”
The biggest challenge for Korea Republic will be the hot and humid weather of Goa. Hyowon agrees and adds: “The temperature is a challenge for us and the players are finding it difficult to play. However, it will help us develop as a team while enabling us to acclimatise before the AFC U-16 Championship.”
The AFC U-16 final are to be held in Goa in September 2016.
Head Coach of Malaysia Somasundram Periasamy explained the importance of such tournaments in the evolution of youth teams. “We appreciate this initiative by All India Football Federation as it helps us in our quest for the FIFA U-17 World Cup by giving us exposure and helps us to prepare for the AFC U-16 Championship.”
“We have recruited players in the last three months and have played in domestic U-19 Leagues as well but this Tournament will help us assess our squad better,” he added. “For us the objective in this tournament is to test our players against better teams and hope that we are able to give our opponents a good fight.”
Meanwhile Bakari Shime, Head Coach of Tanzania, stated that the African team is raring to prove a point in the AIFF Youth Cup. “We are here to compete against better teams before the final of the AFC Cup and this is a golden opportunity to prove ourselves.”
“We have had three National camps before this tournament and are ready for the challenges that we face. This tournament will help our young squad to gain experience and develop.”
The USA U-16 National team has only one objective according to its Head Coach John Hackworth.
Talking to media on the sidelines of training session, Hackworth said the objective is to “gain experience” and test their mettle against teams that they would not faced in competitive football. USA play their first match against Tanzania in.
“The AIFF Youth Cup will also help us to test ourselves against some good footballing sides while allowing the squad to gain experience. This tournament helps us to play Asian and African Nations that we normally wouldn’t play in competitive football,” Hackworth mentioned.
“We are a good squad and have been playing matches every weekend as we gear up for the FIFA U-17 World Cup against professional teams in our country.”
When inquired about his mission, Hackworth opined, “We are in it to win it.”
“Our objective is to win the tournament but we will take one match at a time, and hopefully not fall prey to complacency. This is an excellent opportunity for us to indulge in the local flavour before the FIFA U-17 World Cup and we will see how our team fares against their opponents.”
Talking about Indian football, Hackworth stated “Head Coach of the Indian Senior National Team Stephen Constantine is my good friend and he is doing a decent job.”
“But as for the Indian U-16 squad in the AIFF Youth Cup I am yet to see them play hence I have no assessment of them as of now,” he added.
“As we have a large roster this tournament allows us to experiment and test our players in a different environment against different teams. But we are still a young side and still have a long way to go,” he admitted.
“After this tournament we go to play an International tournament in Mexico. Our ultimate goal is obviously to prepare for the U-17 World Cup,” he informed.
“We don’t know enough about our opponents and it will be a litmus test for us on Sunday although we will go out and play the type of football that we have been preparing,” Hackworth mentioned.
