Upbeat India hope to regain lost ground in Nehru Cup opener

Under the tutelege of Wim Koevermans whose country gave birth to 'total football', holders India will look to regain lost ground after plummeting to their lowest-ever rankings in recent years, in the Nehru Cup opener against Syria, here tomorrow.

Though it is easier said than done, the Indian national football team of late has been trying hard to get a hang of the difficult concept total football under new coach Koevermans and are hping to start off on 'Wim-ing' note.

The hosts have triumphed in the last two editions, in 2007 and 2009, and the mood in the camp, despite entering the tournament as the lowest ranked nation at 168th in the FIFA charts, seemed upbeat.

Testimony to that was the training session at the Jaypee Greens' Integrated Sports Complex here. The players have been slogging hard at the state-of-the-art facility for the past few days and they seemed to have enjoyed every bit of it.

The five-nation tournament at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium will give one an insight into the progress made by the national team under Koevermans, for whom it be the first assignment.

With stars like Bhaichung Bhutia, Climax Lawrence, Mahesh Gawli and Renedy Singh -- all of them have played in the last two editions -- retired, the team may lack slightly in terms of experience.

A lot will depend on how skipper Sunil Chhetri performs upfront. He has just returned after a pre-season training with Porteguese club -- Sporting Lisbon -- and the striker's teammates will certainly look upto him.

Configured in the traditional 4-4-2 system during previous coach Bob Houghton's era, the team did enjoy some success. But the outfit has moved on from that system and is most likely to play in 1-4-4-1-1 formation (including goalkeeper), with Chhetri being the lone man upfront and promising newcomer Alwyn George playing just behind the captain in his preferred position.

... contd.

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