The Danny Hay-coached Kiwis have been one of the firsts to arrive in Mumbai, camping in the city for the past two weeks to get acclimatised to the conditions.
The heat is at its peak in October in Mumbai and the humidity has scaled the 70 per cent mark.
One could sympathise with teams coming from the colder parts of the world like New Zealand and Turkey to these hot and humid conditions.
But even as the FIFA U-17 World Cup kicks off on Friday, the unfriendly climate would matter less as a stronger New Zealand side eyes a win against the skillful Turkey outfit at the lush-green and a cricket-turned football DY Patil Stadium here.
The Danny Hay-coached Kiwis have been one of the firsts to arrive in Mumbai, camping in the city for the past two weeks to get acclimatised to the conditions. They've also played two warm-up games at the Mumbai Football Arena in Andheri. However, they lost both the games, 1-2 to Brazil and 2-3 to England.
"A lot of it is going to come down to mentality," said New Zealand coach Hay. "Who deals with the conditions and atmosphere (better), who can adjust with the pitch, which is slightly different.
"We are quite confident and have had a good build-up. The conditions have been a challenge," he added.
The Turkish team – who will be taking part in the mega event for the third time – are not as worried about the climate conditions, though.
"We planned according to the climate. We were aware of the difficulties and structured our training plan accordinly. Humidity won't only affect us, but the other teams as well," Turkey head coach Mehmet Hacioglu said.
To get acclimatised to the conditions, the European nation had based themselves in Qatar before flying to India.
"We had our first training session in Qatar to close the gap geographically and adapt to the temperature. We trained there for a week and then arrived in Mumbai for our second phase of training," Hacioglu saud.
On the field, the Kiwis are confident despite the two losses they suffered in the warm-up games.
"We know they (Turkey) are a very strong side and did very well to qualify from Europe. We are just preparing us to make sure that our performance is good. If we do that I am sure we will get a positive result," Hay said.
While the Kiwis may have the advantage of being well built, the Turkish are not too wary of it.
"Not only New Zealand, but all other teams are physically well built and are much bigger in size. But we have an advantage against them. We have a much more skilled and talented team. During the preparation camp, we trained closest to India. Our youth leagues in our country started much earlier this year as compared to other years. I believe that this physical difference will not be much of a difference," said the Turkey coach.
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 "FIFA U-17-AFP")
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