New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) India’s football squad will be in Portugal on a two-month training-cum-competition and national coach Bob Houghton sees it as an ideal preparation for the 2011 Asian Cup in Doha.
The 30-member squad, which leaves here in the wee hours of Thursday, will train at Vieira for the first month and then in Lisbon at FC Porto and Sporting Lisbon.
The Indian team, whose last camp was in Dubai for 20 days in February, had trained in Portugal in 2008 for two weeks. Striker Sunil Chhetri, who is now playing for the Major League Soccer side Kansas City Wizardsun, is expected to join the camp at some stage.
‘This will prepare the players for that Asian Cup level. Some players have played in the last two months and some have not and the challenge is to get everyone fit,’ said Houghton, whose contract has been extended till 2013, told reporters here.
‘The players play under different coaches at their clubs, so I have to get them play as a team.
‘The second part of the camp is in Lisbon. They will get to play 10 matches. It looks like a lot of matches, but since there are 30 boys, each gets to play five matches.’
After the camp, from July 1-Aug 30, the players will travel to Bangkok for a friendly against Thailand Sept 4. They then play four international games at Ambedkar Stadium here in September followed by two more in October at a venue yet to be decided.
‘We will be busy in September playing international friendlies hopefully against good opposition,’ Houghton said. ‘In November, we will go to Qatar, where we have two camps before the Asian Cup in January.’
Houghton admits the Asian Cup draw has been a tough one for India but says they are not ‘intimidated.’ India has qualified for the Asian Cup only twice before –in 1964 and 1984.
‘India’s group is the toughest with top countries like Australia, South Korea and Bahrain in it,’ he said.
‘I have watched Australia in the World Cup but you can’t say much. Most of their players and the coach will be retiring after the World Cup. It will be a young team playing in the Asian Cup.
‘The attempt is to make India competitive. The qualification for the Asian Cup after a long time is the first step towards the World Cup. We will be preparing well and won’t be intimidated as we will be going with the right attitude.’
Houghton reiterated the need to change the existing domestic format to produce quality players.
‘To have a strong national side, we need a strong national league. Club commitment is a must to develop good young players. We neither have the facilities nor the infrastructure to develop young players,’ he said.
‘We need a strong domestic programme. The present set up is not conducive to produce World Cup players. I have been here for four years and nothing has changed.’
The squad:
Subrata Paul, Subhashis Roy Choudhury, Arindam Bhattacharya, Surkumar Singh, Manju, Samir Naik, Mohanraj, Mahesh Gawli, Gouramangi Singh, Anwar, Govind Singh, Deepak Mondal, Rakesh Masih, Steven Dias, Climax Lawrence, N.P.Pradeep, Anthony Pereira, Lukram James Singh, Rennedy Singh, Mehrajuddin Wadoo, Syed Rahim Nabi, Baldeep Singh, Clifford Miranda, Bhaichung Bhutia, Sunil Chettri, Abhishek Yadav, Mohd. Rafi, Sushil Kumar Singh, Baljit Sahni, Jagpreet Singh.
