India captain Sunil Chhetri says winning two international tournaments in the past few weeks has given his team greater confidence and also sparked an increasing interest in the sport in the country. He also backed his coach Igor Stimac's push for a longer camp before important tournaments.
Chhetri, said there are two main takeaways from them. "What these tournaments have given us is more confidence," said Chhetri. "And they've given the country a little more interest. You ask any player, win or lose, if we have fans, it's always encouraging."
Which is not to say he was getting carried away. "When you win a few games and get a bit of adulation, sometimes you might think that we are bigger than who we are," he said. "And we, the 40 odd who are part of the national team setup, don't want to do that mistake. For, where we want to reach is far."
"We should be happy [about the Intercontinental and SAFF triumphs] because we worked hard. [But] this is just the start," he said. "I hope everyone who is a stakeholder in football in India understands that. This is just a very, very small start. We are taking baby steps. I hope we don't get carried away by the small, good steps we are taking because my dream for the country is huge: to be in the top 10 in Asia. [...and] it's not going to be easy at all."
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Amongst those steps is the All India Football Federation considering entering the Indian team into tournaments in the Central Asian region. Chhetri agreed with the move, "the [Central Asian] teams are a little bit better... the better teams we play, the more we improve."
He also had a suggestion for the federation - to consider sending U23/U21 teams to the SAFF Championship consistently because of the exposure it would give them. "The number of games for the national team," he added "should not be less but also not a lot. It should be the adequate amount."
Four-week national camp
India's head coach Igor Stimac has sought a four-week national camp ahead of the Asian Cup (which starts on January 12, 2024): a demand that would prove a scheduling headache for the domestic leagues, especially the first division ISL, if met.
Chhetri agreed with his coach's ask, and said, "I think we need it, and I really hope we get it."
Reason one, he said, was the difference in level between the ISL and the toughest team in their Asian Cup group - Australia. "Let's be honest with ourselves, when we meet Australia, we would need to be a couple of levels higher (if not more) than what we're facing in ISL," he said. "When we know this and train accordingly, it helps a little bit."
Another reason is that the possibility of playing a top-7 Asian team before the Asian Cup only improves if they have a longer camp. And Chhetri felt that was mandatory.
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"When we play against Iraq next month, we'll have an idea of how Uzbekistan is," he said. "When we played Lebanon and Kuwait, we got an idea of how Syria was going to be, although Syria will be of a level little bit higher than them. But if we don't play one of the top teams in Asia, we won't have an idea of how Australia is going to be."
There is also a more technical reason behind asking for a longer camp: Chhetri said that it has helped that most ISL teams play a similar kind of system (4-3-3, morphing into 4-5-1 in defence), but the problem is that most key roles are played by foreigners. "For those players who are going to be the foreigners in our national team, it takes a bit of time," he said. "That's why we ask for a little bit longer camp... so we can all understand the system better."
Having got a long camp this year, the team had delivered, playing proactive, high-pressing football during both the Intercontinental and the SAFF Cups.
"The high press is something we could inculcate because we had 50+ days," said Chhetri. "It's something we like now, it's our plan A. No team in the world likes to play against a high press, and it takes a lot of guts, sync between players, and fitness to do that."
"We'll try to do it as long as possible in the 90 minutes. It was easier in Bengaluru because the fans were behind [the team], it was raining, it was nice [weather]... but if conditions are different then we might do it for 10 minutes mins, sit back a little, do it for 10 minutes again. But we'll always want to do it."