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Indian Arrows look to take the I-League by storm

Indian Arrows, the development squad of the All India Football Federation, take on Chennai City FC in their first I-League match in Goa on Wednesday

By Aravind
Indian Arrows players take part in a training session in Goa on Tuesday (Photo courtesy: AIFF Media)

Goa, November 28: All eyes will be on Indian Arrows, the developmental squad fielded by the All India Football Federation, when they take on Chennai City FC in their first ever I-League match at the GMC Bambolim Stadium in Goa on Wednesday (November 29).

The current Arrows squad is a mix of Under-17 players that represented India in the FIFA U-17 World Cup and the Under-19 stars who recently competed in the AFC U-19 Championship Qualifiers in Saudi Arabia.

"We are very excited with this opportunity of getting to play in the I-League. We know we are looking for such chances," Luis Norton de Matos, the Indian Arrows coach, said in the pre-match press conference held on Tuesday (November 28). "These players are going to get match experience by playing in the I-League. This is a starting point. The difficulty we see in the I-League will be similar to what we saw in the World Cup," Matos said.

The idea behind fielding the young footballers in the I-League is to give them game time and Matos feels that this is good for the future. A similar experiment done between 2010-2013 produced India internationals like Jeje Lalpekhlua, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and Holicharan Nazary.

Many Indian Arrows squad members are relishing this chance of getting to play in the country's premier league at such a young age. "We are confident of ourselves and we believe that we can make it tough for I-league teams to play against us," defender Sanjeev Stalin said. "We might not be able to win each and every match, but even if we hold an I-league club to a draw, it will be a big morale booster for us. I want to thank the All India Football Federation for giving us a chance to play in the I-League, it means a lot to us."

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Edmund Lalrindika, who scored in the 3-0 win over Turkmenistan in the AFC U-19 Championship qualifiers in Dammam, said: "Every footballer wants to play in the domestic league as a professional player and playing in the I-League will help us mature as footballers and human beings."

Jeakson Singh, India's first goal-scorer in a FIFA Tournament, was equally excited. "Playing against some of the best clubs in India will certainly be hard for us, but it will be a good learning experience which will help us evolve into better versions of ourselves," he said. "We are excited to play in the I-League, but we will have to be at the top of our game and will have to give more than our hundred percent to give the top teams a tough fight."

Meanwhile, Chennai City FC are looking to better their eighth-place finish last season. Chennai, who play will their home matches in Coimbatore, have a core of young Tamil Nadu players. "We are concentrating more on Tamil Nadu players. That is why we have taken players from rural areas. We have also signed more players from the Chennai Football Association league. This year, we had a very good pre-season and I have the confidence that my players will do well," Chennai City coach V Soundararajan said.


Indian Arrows vs Chennai City FC

I-League

Live from Goa

at 5.30 pm

on Star Sports 2 and Hotstar


Source: AIFF Media

Story first published: Tuesday, November 28, 2017, 18:43 [IST]
Other articles published on Nov 28, 2017