King’s Cup 2019 Preview | India vs Curacao

06/04/2019

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Igor Stimac is expecting a tough first assignment with the Indian national football team as he takes his freshly trimmed side against a better established side in Curacao in Thailand on Wednesday. India are playing the oldest tournament of Asia after a gap of 38 years with many desperate to impress.

What makes this new era of Stimac and Isac Doru all the more interesting is that apart from their primary task of improving India’s FIFA ranking, they are also shouldered with the responsibility of introducing a style of play in Indian football that could be potentially followed by a generation of footballers.

While proving the pro-Albert Rocca brigade wrong wouldn’t definitely be Stimac’s work, a good performance here could well end all debate concerning his surprising appointment at the very last minute. Not only has been his appointment but his team selection has also been quite strange, to begin with.

While some has stated that the Croatian wants to do away with the remaining Stephen Constantine elements in the Indian squad, which doesn’t hold much water, the exclusion of the likes of Dhanpal Ganesh, Rowlin Borges, and many other players indicate to the fact that the coach wants player who are more than willing to buy to his philosophy and blindly follow his instructions.

This would be the first time that the Indian team would be playing since their utterly frustrating AFC Asian Cup in Sharjah at the start of 2019, and while expecting a totally different outcome against a higher-ranked opponent mightn’t be realistic, a different brand of football is very much expected on Wednesday.

The preparatory camp in New Delhi had 37 players and in all honesty, the time given to the national coach was very less to gauge the abilities of the player. But, it was Stimac’s pre-existing in-depth knowledge about the Indian players from both I-League and Indian Super League that had turned the table for him and the Croatian might be presumably all ready for it.

Curacao have had their own inspiring story, to begin with. A small island country in the Caribbean, which only got its independence nine years back in 2010, it has seen many footballers emerging within a short span of time. From being ranked 183rd in June 2014 in FIFA rankings, the side has improved a whopping 101 ranks in a span of five years.

However, India could find a chink in their armour in the fact that the national team has played just one match this year, which saw them lose to Antigua and Barbuda 2-1 in the CONCACAF Nations League qualifiers. They have scored as many as 23 goals in the last five matches and would be relying more on their players’ individual attributes.

Having a close relationship with the Netherlands, many players from the country have been playing in the Eredivisie and get good football training to begin with. Some of their stars are Premier League-experienced Cuco Martina and Leandro Bacuna.

Curacao 23-man squad

Eloy Room, Zeus de la Paz, Jairzinho Pieter, Cuco Martina (Captain), Shanon Carmelia, Darryl Lachman, Juriën Gaari, Jurich Carolina, Shermar Martina, Gevaro Nepomuceno, Leandro Bacuna, Elson Hooi, Jarchinio Antonia, Michaël Maria, Roly Bonevacia, Ayrton Statie, Gersinio Constancia, Shermaine Martina, Jafar Arias, Charlison Benschop, Gervane Kastaneer, Gino van Kessel, Jimbertson Vapor.

India 23-man squad

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Amrinder Singh, Kamaljit Singh, Pritam Kotal, Rahul Bheke, Sandesh Jhingan, Adil Khan, Subhasish Bose, Udanta Singh, Jackichand Singh, Brandon Fernandes, Anirudh Thapa, Raynier Fernandes, Pronay Halder, Vinit Rai, Sahal Abdul Samad, Amarjit Singh, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Michael Soosairaj, Balwant Singh, Sunil Chhetri, Farukh Choudhary, Manvir Singh.