Kolkata, Oct 6 (IANS) India’s senior men’s team has started preparations for the friendly match against Vietnam on October 12. The team assembled in Kolkata on Saturday and had a training session on Sunday morning. The Indian Super League season has begun and Manolo Marquez has reason to believe his sons are in better shape than they were in September.
“Obviously, physically, we’re better than we were in pre-season. There are still some players who are performing well, but they’re not here. We’re still at the beginning of the season. I don’t want to talk too much about people who are not here. If you talk to 20 people, they will all give you a different list,” Marquez told the AIFF media team.
There are some new names in the Indian squad, including left-back Aakash Sangwan, who has earned his first call-up to the national team, and 21-year-old midfielder Lalinliana Hunamte. Farooq Chaudhry returned to the team after three years. Farooq made his debut in 2018 and has represented India 14 times, scoring one goal in the 2021 friendly against Nepal. In the same year, he was part of the Indian team that won the SAFF Championship in the Maldives.
As far as the Vietnam trip is concerned, plans were forced to change just two days ago as Lebanon announced their withdrawal from what was originally supposed to be a trilateral friendly tournament. India will face the 116th-ranked hosts in a one-off friendly on October 12 at Thien Truong Stadium in Nam Dinh.
“In a way, it’s worse because we only play one game. In other words, it’s better because we have a little more time to prepare. If we had to play the game on the 9th, we wouldn’t actually have played the game. We would have only had two practices before. At least now we have four or five sessions. I think the players will understand our philosophy better. We will see if that is enough. But it’s normal if you play for the national team. You have to do some sessions before the match,” Marquez said.
23 members of the Indian national team for the Vietnam friendly match:
Goalkeeper: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Amrinder Singh, Vishal Kais.
Defenders: Nikhil Poojary, Rahul Bheke, Chinglensana Singh Konshyam, Anwar Ali, Aakash Sangwan, Subhashish Bose, Ashish Rai, Mehtab Singh, Roshan Singh Naorem.
Midfielders: Suresh Singh Wangjam, Lalinliana Funamte, Jaxon Singh Tunaojam, Brandon Fernandes, Liston Colaco, Lalengmawia, Lalianzuala Chhangte.
Forwards: Edmund Larindika, Farooq Chaudhry, Manvir Singh, Vikram Partap Singh.
–IANS
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