Akhil Rawat
AIFF Media Team
CHONBURI, THAILAND: The name Chonburi actually originates from Sanskrit words 'Jala' (water) and 'Puri' (town/city). That translates to the 'City of Water', which is where the Indian U17 men's national team landed on Monday morning ahead of the much-awaited AFC U17 Asian Cup 2025 Qualifiers, which will kick off on October 23.
It was no 'water landing', thankfully. However, the city didn't waste any time to live up to its name as the Blue Colts were greeted with light showers during their first training session at the Institute of Physical Education Stadium on Monday evening. The weather is more humid than Kolkata, where India were training for the past week. There's no time to waste for head coach Ishfaq Ahmed and his boys too, as matches come thick and fast - three games in five days, to be precise. India will take on Brunei Darussalam (14:30 IST, October 23), Turkmenistan (14:30 IST, October 25) and Thailand (18:30 IST, October 27).
"It's going to be one step at a time. We have an overall plan of how we're going to approach the qualifiers because there's not much time between matches. But the focus is on the first match against Brunei right now," said Ahmed.
"With just a day's gap between matches, the most challenging part will be to recover the players. Thailand is very humid. Our first two matches are in the afternoon. But the weather is the same for everyone, so that's not an issue. We're here with a positive mindset. I told my boys that if you want to be the best, you have to fight out the external things and show your character," added Ahmed, who is well versed with the conditions in Thailand, having made many trips to the south-east Asian nation during his playing and coaching career.
When it comes to qualifiers for the AFC age-group national competitions, a lot of factors, permutations and combinations can come into play, as was the case at the AFC U20 Asian Cup Qualifiers last month, where India missed out on qualifying on the basis of goal difference. For the AFC U17 Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2025, alongside the 10 group winners, five best second-placed teams will qualify. However, there are three groups with five teams, six with four teams and one with three teams after Lebanon pulled out of Group H. That means results against fourth and fifth-placed teams will not count in ranking the best group runners-ups. While Ahmed has all the possibilities mapped out, the focus is on topping the group and hoping the scenarios don't become complicated.
"Goals will be important. The groups are uneven, things have become complicated, so there's very little margin of error. But we're not thinking of that. We want to qualify without a doubt. Even one goal could change things for us. Sometimes things even get down to yellow cards. I have already spoken to the boys about how important it is to be a disciplined team. In front of goal, I know we'll create a lot of chances and I hope we convert them. We have to be at our best in every game," said Ahmed.
Monday's training session involved an elaborate strength and conditioning session, followed by focus on build-up, finishing and set-pieces. India U17 will have their official matchday minus one training session at the Banbueng Stadium at 16:00 local time on Tuesday.
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