Incheon: India’s football coach Wim Koevermans is still hopeful the team will shrug aside their disappointment of their heavy loss to the UAE and come up with a better performance against Jordan on Monday.
The UAE mauled India 5-0 in their Group G opener last week with Koevermans at a loss to explain the heavy loss to last time’s silver medallists in Guangzhou. However, Jordan caused a big upset as they rode on an Ahmad Mousa Al Essawi goal in the seventh minute to edge past the UAE 1-0 on Thursday.
Both the UAE and Jordan have three points each. A win for India in their last group match will have a three-way tie with two teams advancing on goal difference.
The final group match between Jordan and India on Monday will now decide which two teams advance to the Round of 16. Should India win 2-0 against Jordan, the former will advance at the cost of Jordan as the UAE have a better goal difference.
“That defeat did hurt us. What I could not understand is how fragile we were on the cross balls. We have tried to rectify the situation and the players are in a much better frame of mind after a few days of the defeat,” Koevermans told Gulf News.
“I’ve been talking to the boys and they seem to have come to terms that it was just a bad day [against the UAE]. I expect them to hold off strongly in the defence and get the goals needed to advance,” he added.
In the Round of 16, the winner of Group G will play the runner-up of Group H, while Group H will take on the second-placed team from Group G on September 15 and 26.
Vietnam is at the top of Group H following their 4-1 win over Iran last week, while Iran is tied with one point with Kyrgyzstan following their 1-1 draw on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Koevermans announced his squad of 20 players for India’s two back-to-back international friendly matches against AFC Challenge Cup champions Palestine next month.
Both matches will be held at the Kanchenjunga Stadium in Siliguri, West Bengal on October 6 and 9. The squad is scheduled to assemble in Goa on September 27 where they will be based till October 3.
