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Indian football team set to tour Portugal
Published on Thu, Jul 03, 2008 at 00:56, Updated on Thu, Jul 03, 2008 at 01:40 in Sports » Football section
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THE MASTER: Indian football team coach Bob Houghton during a training session in New Delhi.
New Delhi: The Euro 2008 fever is over and now its back to reality for football fans back home. It will be some time before the Indian team can even think of reaching the level of the top European teams.
Step one on that journey seems to be the upcoming trip to Portugal for valuable match practice against club teams.
When a hard taskmaster in the coach of the Indian football team coach Bob Houghton is at hand, sapping heat and humidity can't be an excuse.
The Indian football team can't afford to rest.
Smarting from a humiliating loss to Maldives in the SAFF Cup final, the team is looking at it tour to Portugal as a chance to regroup.
"The supporting group if you like to say it gets some matches with the first team and we can do that best by playing three games in 11 days in Portugal and against club teams where we can use a lot of players," Houghton says.
The latest FIFA rankings have seen India once again in the low 150's and the high of the Nehru Cup win seems to have disappeared.
The talent is there but the bugbear is the same - the absence of a proper system.
"Lot needs to done. I think there's interest but we need to do quite a lot," Indian skipper Bhaichung Bhutia says.
For Bhaichung, the recent European Championship are an indicator, the interest is there
"I think the kids need to start playing. That's very important. For them to go and play is very important. For that each and every state government needs to do more. The problem is that we do not have space to play," he adds.
The trip to Portugal is the precursor to the big challenge, which will be the AFC Challenge Cup in Hyderabad later this month.
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