Preparations are in full swing at the Mumbai Football Arena for the upcoming friendly match between India and Puerto Rico . While on the ground , head coach Stephen Constantine has tough  task on his hand against his South American opponents. Puerto Rico  ranked 114 , are definitely  having upper hand over India who ranked pretty low (152) in FIFA ranking . And the enormity of task is very much to Constantine’s  sliking . He is one to believe that the best way to  test the strength of the team is by playing higher opposition.

“It’s a hugely important match for the people in Maharashtra that International Football is back in Mumbai after a long gap. Mumbai, as vibrant as ever, has been known for its Football culture and I hope the Indian fans will be turning up to support and cheer from the Stands. It’s important that we have a good crowd,” India coach Stephen
Constantine told  AIFF

He has also mentioned that it will be exteremely  tough match for the Indian players. India’s last game was against Bhutan which they had won  3-0. However this time they are up against seemingly very tough opponent  . this is also the first time  ever that team from CONCACAF  team is visiting India.

They  CONCACF team has the best ever movers on the field which can keep Indian Defender on their toes. The Puerto rican side also have mauch better exsposed squad with most of it’s player playing in quality leauges all over the world including  Europe USA. Their resurgence in upwards direction of FIFA Ranking is an example of their strength. On the other side Indian side have support of 20000 home support to boost their morale but they certainly need more tyhan that in order tomatch the quality of the South Americans on Staurday.

The list of 28 Players:

GOALKEEPERS: Subrata Paul, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Amrinder Singh

DEFENDERS: Rino Anto, Sandesh Jhingan, Arnab Mondal, Keegan Pereira, Chinglensana Singh, Pritam Kotal, Narayan Das, Fulganco Cardozo.

MIDFIELDERS: Vinit Rai, Eugeneson Lyngdoh, Dhanpal Ganesh, Pronay Halder, Jackichand Singh, Isaac Vanmalsawma, Bikash Jairu, Udanta Singh, Halicharan Narzary, Rowlin Borges, Alwyn George, Germanpreet Singh, Md. Rafique, Arjun Tudu

FORWARDS: Sunil Chhetri, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Sumeet Passi.

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Mumbai is gearing up to host it’s first ever   International football match to be  held at Andheri Sports complex  on this weekend 3rd September.The news comes as pure delight for Mumbai Football fanatics  as they  we”ll be witnessing International football after a gap of 48 years in city of Mumbai.

The Idea of holding match came up in January  when  BMC  sent  a report to the  Federation of  Inetrnationale de Football Association (FIFA) . International governing body  of Association football. Prior to that preparation were on full swing for the Recreation of  Andheri Sports Complex.

” “In November of last year, a FIFA representative had inspected the football stadium at the sports complex. Post the visit of their official, FIFA had tendered a list of necessities which were a must for the stadium,” The officials said.In matter of six months  BMC  accumlated  the basic infrastructure  of  the   stadium  including  improved floodlights , renovated dressing rooms , player’s tunnel’s entry and have  also organised  player’s accomodation.

They have also laid new grass on the field which has been imported from Indonesia. The civic body is also revamping the  audience  seating gallery with  plans to construct  special sectionsand enclosure for VIP’s. It looks like the prepartion are in  final stages for the  match. And the stadium is all set to soak up the Internatinal Soccer atmosphere.

Due to such excellent work by ground officals there are also talk of hosting  U -17  FIFA  football world cup which is to be scheduled in September of next year. But the  final call on this decision holds on the court of FIFA which is still pending.However  Saturday’s friendly reamains to be the main course  action for now  which might open doors futurstic growth of Indian Football in  near future  from our very own city of Mumbai and the well  decked up stadium & BMC  have left no stone unturned for that.

So don’t  forget to cheer our Blue Colts against  Puerto Rico this Saturday   on 3rd of September.

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