King's Cup | I’m proud of the players, says Igor Stimac
Indian head coach Igor Stimac has said he was delighted with the way his players played and the manner in which the fans supported the team in the King’s Cup in Thailand. He also discussed the team’s approach and performances, while stating there is too much competition for a starting XI spot.
After falling to a 3-1 defeat in the first match against Curacao in the King’s Cup, the Indian team made a strong comeback to edge out their opponents Thailand in the third-place match after the latter had lost to Vietnam in their first match. The tournament was the Croatian coach’s first match as the head coach of the Indian national team and the performances showed that he was still figuring his way around the squad, with the number of players competing to be a part of the lineup adding to his difficult job.
“I have competition in my team for every place, and that's what makes me helpless as a coach,” he said humorously in the post-match press conference after win against Thailand.
The win against Thailand is the team’s second of the year, after having defeated them 4-1 in the AFC Asian Cup 2019 in January. Anirudh Thapa, who had incidentally scored in the last match against them too, scored a poacher’s goal in the seventeenth minute which was followed by some resolute defending from the visitors that helped them take away the game.
“Today's result was a result of excellent defending. That was fantastic. Nothing to say about that. Just congratulations,” he stated. “I was a defender playing at the top level. I can show a few things to the boys, and that’s what we have been doing in the last two weeks -- explaining things to the players, and working on the pitch,” Stimac remarked.
“In the second half, Thailand were very organised. They were trying to attack from the wings, and put quality crosses. But as I said before, my defenders were fantastic today. It was just not possible for Thailand to score today with my defenders working like this. I changed a few things after we scored the goal. I have many inexperienced players who can lose their head during the game. I wanted them to let them play freely at the back to pass, move and concentrate to close in the middle,” he added.
After playing in a possession-based system of football and dominating proceedings for the large part against Curacao, who are 19 spots above them in the rankings. the Blues resorted to low blocks and long ball strategy against Thailand, especially after going into the lead.
“If we want to keep the ball and pass it around, we could do that against better sides likes Curacao. We kept the possession, pushed them back inside their box and created chances in the second half. After we scored the goal, we allowed Thailand to take possession. We didn't insist on possession. We tried to hold, and hurt them on counter attacks. Off one such counter, we could have finished the game in the first-half itself. But two of my players were a little bit indecisive in front of the goalkeeper,” he explained.
With a hectic schedule coming up for team India with hopes of the heralding a new era under the renowned coach, who has been in charge of the likes of Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic and Matteo Kovacic in the past, the players were praised for their performances on social media and enjoyed unwavering support of the masses during the event.
“I would like to thank all my players, staffs for helping to fulfil what we wanted to do in the last two weeks. Congratulations to everyone in AIFF too. I'm particularly happy because the people in India supported us after we lost the first game. I'm proud of the players. There are so many young players in the team,” the coach concluded.