Our goal is to qualify for next round: White
Placed fourth in Group D with seven points to their name, Gary White, the coach of the Guam national side said that his side will eye nothing less than a win when they take on India in their FIFA World Cup qualifying tie on Thursday.
“It’s obvious that we have to get three points if we have to qualify into the next round. Our players have a goal in mind, to make sure that the game against Oman in March is a winner takes all for the second spot. And to do that we have to win tomorrow,” said the Englishman on the eve of the tie.
After winning the opening two games of the campaign, the tiny island nation ran into trouble, losing to Iran and Turkmenistan, while settling for a draw against Oman in their following encounters. Their coach however, chose to look at the positive side of the story.
“We had a good start winning the first two games, but couldn’t maintain that. And then we ended up playing tough teams away. It was a learning experience for us as a team. We are growing and developing. Our performance against Iran was fantastic, but the result wasn’t. And then Oman was really good. I was happy with the show my boys put up after that Iran defeat. We’re still in a good place and the players have confidence. And we still believe we can get that second spot,” he added.
While Guam have enjoyed a good run so far, the Indians have struggled in their journey, failing to register even a single point so far.
“The last time India were in any qualifier was more than eight years ago. So the fact that we went into the qualifiers in itself is an achievement given the past history,” said the Indian coach Stephen Constantine.
“How can we expect after eight years of not playing anybody of great pedigree, to suddenly qualify? You don’t make a team in a day or a month. While I would like to qualify as we all would, what have we done to give ourselves the chance to do that?,” he questioned.
Throwing light on his side’s performance Constantine urged more patience to guarantee consistency from his side.
“When you are rebuilding a team, given the past five-seven years that India went through, you are going to get inconsistencies. In Guam we didn’t play as well as we did in Oman.
“After Oman, everyone was saying great game and I said we lost. We played well in that game. But that’s football, you can’t guarantee consistency after four games. The team needs time and that’s something that I seem to not have on my side,” he remarked.
“It’s obvious that we have to get three points if we have to qualify into the next round. Our players have a goal in mind, to make sure that the game against Oman in March is a winner takes all for the second spot. And to do that we have to win tomorrow,” said the Englishman on the eve of the tie.
After winning the opening two games of the campaign, the tiny island nation ran into trouble, losing to Iran and Turkmenistan, while settling for a draw against Oman in their following encounters. Their coach however, chose to look at the positive side of the story.
“We had a good start winning the first two games, but couldn’t maintain that. And then we ended up playing tough teams away. It was a learning experience for us as a team. We are growing and developing. Our performance against Iran was fantastic, but the result wasn’t. And then Oman was really good. I was happy with the show my boys put up after that Iran defeat. We’re still in a good place and the players have confidence. And we still believe we can get that second spot,” he added.
While Guam have enjoyed a good run so far, the Indians have struggled in their journey, failing to register even a single point so far.
“The last time India were in any qualifier was more than eight years ago. So the fact that we went into the qualifiers in itself is an achievement given the past history,” said the Indian coach Stephen Constantine.
“How can we expect after eight years of not playing anybody of great pedigree, to suddenly qualify? You don’t make a team in a day or a month. While I would like to qualify as we all would, what have we done to give ourselves the chance to do that?,” he questioned.
Throwing light on his side’s performance Constantine urged more patience to guarantee consistency from his side.
“When you are rebuilding a team, given the past five-seven years that India went through, you are going to get inconsistencies. In Guam we didn’t play as well as we did in Oman.
“After Oman, everyone was saying great game and I said we lost. We played well in that game. But that’s football, you can’t guarantee consistency after four games. The team needs time and that’s something that I seem to not have on my side,” he remarked.
0 comments:
Post a Comment