Stephen Constantine, National coach, chose the 24-year-old to inspire a young side (average age of the team is 23).
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Constantine had watched Puerto Rico take on United States.
Meanwhile, the Puerto Rico football team, who will be without their head coach and three top attacking players – Hector Ramos, Jorge Rivera and Joseph Marrero – during the match, reportedly missed their connecting flight from NY to Mumbai on Thursday, the Hindustan Times reported.
“They (Puerto Rico) have similarities with Guam”.
As such, playing against the higher ranked Puerto Rican outfit, placed 114th in the world, becomes all the more important. They have a number of players playing in Europe and they will be a very good side, make no mistake of that. At the end of the day we will have to play football to beat them. We’ll go for them. Within the lineup, a new captain too has been appointed, with India’s only ever player to play in a top flight European game, and Europa Cup match, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu taking over the captain’s armband from Sunil Chhetri. “We won’t be changing how we play”, he voiced with conviction.
“I think every time you wear the Indian jersey you should be motivated to do well”, he began, in his address to the press ahead of the encounter.
“People often say he went out to play overseas”. A country like Norway is not easy at all. “If I was an Indian player in this current national team, I would have liked to play outside for my own development”, he added. Sandesh Jhingan will remain key in the defence along with Arnab Mondal and Company. In case he chooses to be slightly stable in the midfield, Rowlin Borges could be seen partnering Pranoy Halder in central midfield, with Eugenson Lyngdoh pushing higher up the pitch.
Sunil Chhetri and Jackichand Singh are expected to play on the left and right wings respectively. “Let’s get the Puerto Rico game out of the way and then we shall see what next”, said Bhutia.
“They like to keep the ball and pass it around”. But around the box and in the final third they become very unsafe.
Bhaichung Bhutia, who heads AIFF’s Technical Committee, reiteratedthat they will look to discuss Constantine’s future after the game against Puerto Rico. Much like the visitors in Mumbai, Guam is a U.S. territory that recruited most of its players from American clubs.
It’s assumed that the team may suffer from travel fatigue to a certain degree, yet they still will be keen to employ their proven fluidic one-touch style of play.
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Having missed out on worldwide action for more than six decades, Mumbai will hope India will make it a memorable return for the city to global action by claiming a rare and precious win over a higher ranked non-Asian team.
