Goal is to win Nehru Cup: Coach

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India football coach Wim Koevermans (centre) oversees practice at their preparatory camp for the Nehru Cup—Satish B.

Braving evening rains, the 38-member Indian probables kick-started their preparatory camp for the Nehru Cup under new national coach Wim Koevermans in Bengaluru on Friday.

After a gruelling, almost three-hour training session, Dutchman Koevermans was all praise for the facilities at the Bangalore Football Stadium as well as the weather conditions here.
“It is interesting. The artificial turf here is really good and I don’t mind these rains. The conditions here are really good for our preparations,” he said.
The All India Football Federation was forced to shift the camp from the Jaypee Greens’ Atlantis Stadium in Greater Noida due to heavy rainsn there.
Koevermans began the two-week camp here giving some tough conditioning workout to the boys.
The national side will wind up here on August 16 before leaving for New Delhi, where they will have the last session of their campaign.
“We started off the second session of our preparations hard and I demand a lot from the boys. Our goal is to win the Nehru Cup and three weeks is quite a lot of time for an international coach to prepare any team.
“We will get a good stint in Delhi, so the transition is not going to affect us in anyway,” he added.
The Dutchman, who is unhappy over the non-availability of the India’s star striker Sunil Chhetri said there was ‘no decision yet on him and the AIFF might take a call in the coming days’.
Chhetri’s manager had recently made it clear that he will be available only after August 19, after his Sporting Lisbon’s ‘B’ outings on August 12 and 19.