India’s head coach Thomas Dennerby admitted that his team is not up to the standard of the US team after suffering a crushing defeat in the opening match of the FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup football tournament. The Indian team lost 0-8 to America in the first match on Tuesday. Dennerby’s statement is in stark contrast to his previous statement when he claimed that the Indian team won any team in the age-group tournament, despite a 1-3 loss in the pre-tournament warm-up match against Sweden’s U-17 team. Capable of giving tough challenges.
Dennerby said after the match against America, “I didn’t expect that we would score so many goals because when we played against Sweden a few days ago, we had a very good defense. We defended well in that match, we had two shots on the bar and we created chances. But to be honest, at least compared to Sweden, America was one level ahead of us.” Dennerby said before the match against America that the match against Sweden was close and “if you close against Sweden.” If you can play matches, then you can challenge any team in the tournament.
The Indian coach had earlier said that India had prepared very well for the FIFA U-17 World Cup but in a press conference, he said the contrary that India had not faced any team of US level before this tournament. India’s U-17 team after starting their World Cup preparations in February, followed by Romania (1 draw and 1 loss), Italy (0-7 loss), Netherlands (1-5 loss), Sweden (1-3 loss), Chile (1-3 loss) and against Mexico (0-2 loss). Dennerby said, “There is no doubt that America is a very good team. You see their skill, see their speed. You can’t find fault in his team. Every team we played against at the beginning of this year was not of this standard.
He said the team could have played better than the disappointing performance against America but the players were playing in a World Cup match for the first time and were nervous. Dennerby said, “This match was really tough for us but I also know that the Indian team could have played a better game than this. I think the girls were a little nervous. This is her first World Cup and she couldn’t adjust to the situation. She was not comfortable. I hope we will do better against Morocco.” Dennerby had set a target of making the quarter-finals before the tournament but now it will be difficult for him to reach this point.
India’s next match will be against Morocco on Friday. “We will stick to our strategy and try to win the next match,” Dennerby said. If we are successful in this, we will still have a chance to move forward.
