India to train in Portugal for Asian Cup football
HERALD SPORTS REPORTER
PANJIM, MARCH 28
India have already qualified for the 2011 Asian Cup football in which Asia’s best will be vying for top honours. The preparations will start in July with the players moving to Vieira in Portugal, where they will train for a month.
In August, the boys will go to Lisbon to train at the Sporting Academy where Cristiano Ronaldo trained as a youngster for a month and will play in all 10 matches.
“The names of the teams have not yet been decided but we shall play 10 matches in August with some Second Division sides and maybe a top division side. We will see how we go,” said Houghton in an interview with Goal.Com..
In September, most of Asia’s top 16 nations have been invited for several friendlies. And the good news is that Ambedkar Stadium, better known as the Fortress of the Indian national team, could be available to host the games given that the Commonwealth events won’t take place at the venue any more.
“On September 4, we play Thailand away and a home game possibly at Ambedkar against them on the 8th. Thereafter, we play four friendlies on the 15th, 22nd, 29th (September) and possibly on the 1st (October).”
“We have invited all of the top 16 nations of Asia except Australia, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran and even Syria, as we have played against them. Ideally, we would have liked to have a Nehru Cup type of tournament but to keep these teams for 10 days is an issue and so we decided to play one-off friendlies each,” said the former coach of China.
India are to play the World Cup qualifiers on October 8 and 12 and the opponents are unknown and is likely to be decided around the World Cup kick-off in June.
The Asia Cup tournament will be a tough one for India as the chances of them having to face one of the big Asian giants looks more than possible with each passing day.
Iraq and Qatar are part of the top seeds by virtue of being the current champions and the host nation.
Meanwhile, there is also a possibility of the Indian national team heading off to Qatar in November to participate in a tournament, for which the details haven’t been finalized as yet.
“There could be a Confederations Cup style tournament organised in which we could participate,” said Houghton.
The list of 30 boys has been submitted of those who shall be part of the 2011 Asian Cup preparation and the 61-year-old believes that India deserve to be where they are.
