AIFF Media Team

NEW DELHI: It has been almost a month since the 35-member U-14 Girls, who will form the core of the U-14 Women’s National Team slated to participate in the AFC U-14 Regional Championships starting March 20 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, have been rehearsing at SAI Centre, LNCPE, Thiruvananthapuram.

Now with less than a fortnight to go for the tournament to take centre stage, Head Coach Priya P.V. from Kerala has the toughest job at hand, that of wielding the axe.

Speaking to www.the-aiff.com about how ‘fruitful’ the Camp has been and at the same time how difficult it will be for her Team to pick the best for the ‘very talented lot’, Priya said:

“We started off with 35 girls in the Camp. Now we have 30 with us. The Final Squad will be a 18-member one. That’s the figure given by AFC,” Priya informed.

“It was really difficult to come down from 35 to 30. All the girls are really good and at this level it’s a good sign.

“We played against a school boys team and it was good exposure for all of them. We fared well and I believe going into the tournament this experience will help.

India are clubbed with Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Iran, Nepal, and Turkmenistan. The Girls play Sri Lanka on March 20 at the City Football Complex in Colombo.

“It will be interesting to see how Nepal play. They are playing for the first time in this category. It is needless to say that we have to put out best foot forward as all teams have had their preparation going all will come all guns blazing at us,” the Head Coach signed off.