FIFA U-17 WC: Officials empathised with India colts, claiming they got emotional

New Delhi, Oct 16: India's participation in their first ever World Cup tournament as a host country ended last week as the men in blue crashed out of the group stage after three consecutive defeats.

The young kids played with their heart and soul and fought neck to neck with some of the footballing giants throughout the tournament, however, that did not turn out to be enough.

India lost their first match 3-0 against the USA, but scored their first ever goal in a FIFA World Cup tournament when youngster Jeakson Thounaojam equalised Colombia’s lead by scoring a brilliant header from Corner, although eventually, the Colts lost 1-2 in their second Group league match.

However, during the whole 90 minutes, the minnows Men in Blues fought neck to neck. In the last group league matches, they surrender to Ghana as they crumbled down to a 4-0 defeat. However, despite all these, the head of coaching and player development of Under 17 World Cup, Ujevic has hailed the performance of the Indian youngsters and heaped praise on them.

“It was obvious that they played an adaptive game in the first match but they were amazing against Colombia. They were very organised, tactically and physically well-prepared,” Ujevic said at the Salt Lake Stadium.

“They created a few scoring chances and were so enthusiastic and emotional, jumping in joy after scoring the goal that they forgot to protect the goal in the counter-attack. I hope they will learn a lot from these type of games otherwise it’s difficult to take a look into the future.”

Many youngsters among this team already have caught the attention of the whole nation and reportedly many scouts from all over the world have inquired about some of our youngsters.

However, according to the Fifa official, India’s only goalscorer Jeakson Singh and custodian Dheeraj Singh have impressed him the most.

“In the Indian team, you have two very nice midfield players, and also the goalkeeper. The guy (Jeakson) is just 16 years old and has already put his footprint in the history of Indian football with his first ever goal for India. This was the best possible learning tool for the India U-17 team. Obviously, physically and tactically, they were well prepared with the big influence of Luis Norton de Matos.”

It is the first time Ijevic is working as head of coaching and player development and while talking about the tournament, the official suggested that he is very much happy with every team's playing style and response and the competition will be more exciting in the next knockout stage.

France, Honduras, Iraq, Japan, Mexico along with England have already secured their completion the Round of 16 as the rest of the nations will be still fighting this week for next stage participation.

Ujevic said: "This is my first tournament as head of coaching and player development. Teams have come well prepared and are playing in different styles. You have skillfull players in wing and attack.

"Credit to coaches as well as they were making interesting changes during the tournament. The next stage will be more exciting," he added.