As they get ready to board the flight for Portugal for a training-cum-playing stint, the Indian football team has little clue about the details.
GURGAON: As they get ready to board the flight for Portugal for a training-cum-playing stint, the Indian football team has little clue about the details, including the teams they are to confront in practice matches, of the near three-week sojourn.
The 25 national probables, guided by head coach Bob Houghton and his support staff, leave for Lisbon in the early hours of Friday, but their opposition for the four games they are scheduled to play in the Iberian peninsula is yet to be decided.
"All I know is that we are leaving for Portugal at 12.55 am on July 13. Nothing else is confirmed yet," team manager Pradip Chaudhury said here while the probables sweated it out in their penultimate training session at the Chaudhary Devi Lal Sports Complex.
Defender Sanjeev Maria, who was diagnosed with a knee injury, and goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharja, who underwent a shoulder surgery on Thursday and would be out of action for a few weeks, miss out on the trip.
The preparatory trip to Europe was confirmed more than a month ago, but the All India Football Federation is still trying to fix the dates, venues and opposition for the practice matches.
AIFF has apparently left it to Houghton to organise the matches and the Portuguese Federation has been trying to get in touch with the Englishman to fix the schedule.
But with the coach conducting the national camp in Gurgaon, it has not always been possible for the discussions to take place.
The team is expected to play at least one match against a team from the Portuguese top division while the other games will be against teams from the lower leagues.
"Whoever we face, it would be a tough assignment for us as it is early in our season and the players have just returned from a four-week break. Moreover, European sides are always strong," Houghton said.
Star striker Bhaichung Bhutia said the players were not going to Portugal with any fixed targets.
"It is a preparatory stint and all we want is to play well and be competitive," the Mohun Bagan player said.
Another key player, Renedy Singh, also emphasised the importance of the tour.
"We have lot of international games in the coming season and we need to start well," the star midfielder said.
One of the key aims for the season would be to lift India's FIFA rankings, which now stands at 161. Bhutia feels it was a reflection on how few internationals India played last season.
"If our cricket team does not play any games for a year, what would happen to their ranking," the Sikkimese striker asks rhetorically.
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