New Delhi, August 30: India coach Bob Houghton is confident that his boys are capable of defending their ONGC Nehru Cup football title against higher-ranked Syria in the final here Monday.
“My boys are exceptional and have done well in the last three years. They have made four finals in last three years and won thrice. The success graph has been going up and I am sure they can beat any team in the continent in front of a packed Ambedkar Stadium,” Houghton told reporters on the sidelines of the practice session here.
Houghton, however, said that 95th-ranked Syria were a better team but not unbeatable.
“Our reserve side did well to keep the margin of loss down to 0-1 in Saturday’s encounter. And I strongly feel that our full strength team can beat them Monday. My boys are better than what the rankings shows,” he said.
Houghton also said that he wouldn’t make any change to his starting eleven.
Bhaichung Bhutia and Sunil Chettri will play upfront while newcomer Anthony Pereira, N.P. Pradeep, Climax Lawrence and Steven Dias will make up the midfield. Mahesh Gawli, Anwar, Gourmangi Singh and Surkumar Singh will man the defence while Subrata Paul will look to continue his good work under the bar.
Houghton also said that the Nehru Cup could lose its importance if the national team doesn’t play 10-12 international matches every year.
“We play the Nehru Cup to go up in FIFA rankings. But even if we win the tournament we won’t be able to improve our rankings. We also should play around 10-15 international matches every year on the given FIFA dates for international friendlies. But unfortunately our boys don’t get much time to play international matches. As long as we don’t solve it, guys like Sunil Chettri will never be able to go abroad and play in European leagues,” he said.
The Englishman was disappointed after national captain Bhutia was called on by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to solve his ongoing tussle with his club Mohun Bagan.
“It doesn’t make any sense. Tomorrow we are playing a final and I don’t find any logic behind the meeting on the eve of the match. It was nonsensical,” he said.
—IANS