An early goal from Russian club Spartak Moscow‘s highly rated striker Daniil lopatin, was the difference as the Indian colts failed to find a breakthrough in the Russian defence despite having a man advantage for most of the second half.

In the very 3^rd minute of the game, a defensive misunderstanding inside the Indian penalty box saw Lopatin burying his shot past the India custodian Dheeraj. Being constantly out-muscled by their well-built Opponents Indian coach made an early change with Abijit Sarkar being replaced by Aniket Jadhav.

India soon got an opportunity through a Boris’s solid cross which aniket failed to get a proper contact to. In the 31^st minute, another attempt by Boris was cleared of by the Russian keeper. On the other hand the Indian custodian was repeatedly tested by Russian attack but he hanged on as India went into break with just a solitary goal down.

Early in the second half, Indian Skipper Amarjit came close to scoring as his shot whizzed inches wide off the post. Around 50 minute mark, a wild tackle by Russian midfielder Nail Umiarov resulted in the referee giving the midfielder marching orders.

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With a goal advantage and a man down, the Russian colt decided to sit back and defend their score. Going forward looking for the equalizer, Indians came close couple of times but could not break the resolute Russian defence. Substitute Aman Chhetri came with an effort from outside the box but wasn’t enough. In the 83th minute, Komal’s curling attempt went agonizingly close as the ball once again went inches past the post. In the end, the Russian held on to their one goal lead as they took all 3 points.

In the other game, China went down 2-0 against Brazil. Victor Gabriel scored the first ever goal BRICS U-17 Football Tournament while defender Vitor matos’s second half strike sealed the deal.

Gabriel tapped home a cross from the right flank in the first minute itself to give Brazil the advantage. A dominant display by Brazil was the story of the game as china failed to make any threatening impact on Brazil’s defence. A Second half strike from Defender Vitor Matos secured the win for Brazil as Carlus Amadeu’s team take the pole position in the group.

India will now face South Africa on 7^th October, while Russia takes on face china on the same day.

Scores:

India 0- 1 Russia (Lopatin 3’)

China PR 0 – 2 Brazil (Victor Gabriel 1’, Vitor Matos 65’)

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India U-17 take on Russia U-17 in the historic first edition of BRICS Cup

Over the last couple of years, a football tournament among the BRICS nations were doing the rounds and finally India this year on the occasion of the 8th BRICS summit will host the historic first edition of BRICS Cup.

Originally Brazil, Russia, India and China were grouped as “BRIC” (or “the BRICs”) before the induction of South Africa in 2010. The BRICS members are all leading developing or newly industrialized countries that annually meet to increase their contribution in global market. After some initial talks, last year around this same time, it was declared that India will host the BRICS Cup on the occasion of 8th BRICS summit.

The Tournament will take place once every year as a 10-day event and following the lines of the FIFA under-17 tournaments. Each edition will be held in a BRICS nation. On 1st October 2016, Indian Prime Minister India Narendra Modi, unveiled the Trophy for the 2016 BRICS U-16 Football Tournament in New Delhi. After participating in the AFC U-16 Championship in Goa, the Indian U-17 World Cup Squad will gear up to face Russia in their opening encounter.  It will be an important experience for India’s world cup bound squad to face possible challengers next year. Nicolai Adam, Head Coach of the Indian U-17 World Cup Squad, had earlier opined, “The BRICS Cup gives us an opportunity to play a minimum of four International matches. It (BRICS Cup) will add to the experience of the boys as we prepare for the FIFA U-17 World Cup”

Ahead of India’s first game against Russia, Nicolai stressed on the importance of the tournament and what it means for the players, “We are thankful for the BRICS Tournament and it helps us to gather more experience under our belts whilst exposing us to strong Teams. The BRICS U-17 Football Tournament is like a pre-World Cup as there are five Teams from four different confederations”

“We have to be competitive in the BRICS Tournament and ensure that we are hard to beat”, the Indian Coach said in the official Pre-Tournament Press Conference.

While talking about their opponent Russia Nicolai added, “Russia is a fantastic Team and we respect them as opponents. They finished their qualifying campaign with nine points and we look forward to giving them a hard fight, come tomorrow”

Russian U-17 coach Dimtry Ulyanov seemed well aware of what challenges India could provide but ys confident of his team’s ability “We are expecting a tough challenge from India. However, we are ready for the Tournament as we come on the back of a Tournament in France and had participated in the UEFA Development Tournament as well”

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Need to hunt actively for the ball-Adams

When asked about his analysis on India’s encouraging performance in AFC U-16 competition, Nicolai explained that his team needs to work on some technicalities, “We need to hunt actively for the ball and once we have the ball, we need to keep it better. Our philosophy is to score as many goals as possible but in order to score we need to have possession. Sometimes lack patience and commit a lot. It is normal not to have balance in youth Football, but we have to strive to right our wrongs”, he stated.

Indian colts captain Suresh Singh who was also present in the Press Conference praised the German Coach’s work ethic and said, “We have developed into better Player under Nicolai-sir and he has taught us a lot when it comes to Football”

India take on Russia in the day’s Second encounter tomorrow at 8PM after China take on Brazil in the opening one at 5PM, the match will be live telecasted on DD Sports.

India’s fixtures in the U-16 BRICS Cup:

October 05: India vs. Russia

 October 07: India vs. South Africa

October 11: India vs. China

 October 13: India vs. Brazil

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When asked about expectation from this tournament, India U-16 Coach Nicolai Adams explained, “It’s not a secret, I signed with India to prepare a team for World cup next year. I have one more year to do that. Our very next task is to qualify for the world cup on merit; you know that means to reach semi finals. It will be important for us since it would mean we belong in the world cup on merit and not because we are being host.” The semifinalists from the 16 Teams would earn a direct entry to the FIFA U-17 World Cup in India next year.

“I know it would be sensational if we could do that, especially when we are missing 5 players. It would be very difficult, but I am not person who would run from that, no. The target would remain same, and we will see where it takes us. We will put our best effort.” He added.

The coach seemed happy with preparations for the championship, “We have had our exposure tour in Germany and Norway for the past three months and we have played 19 matches so far. We are looking forward to start our campaign and hope for the best,”

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Nicolai also stressed that he is taking one match at a time.

Like all other team coaches, Nicolai adams seemed vary of the opposition, “You ask the Coach from UAE and he will tell you that they take us seriously. If you ask me, I will also answer the same,” he quipped.

Ranked at 152, India will face UAE, who are ranked 74 in the FIFA rankings. But United Arab Emirates Coach Abdel Majeed believed that FIFA Rankings will count no significance in Youth Football. He said a lot of teams have good young players that don’t reflect the senior team rankings.

“Honestly speaking, at this age, the Senior Team Ranking hardly matters. You can find many good Teams at this age group but at the senior level, they fail to perform,” said the UAE coach at the Official Pre-Tournament Press Conference.

“The Senior Team Rankings of UAE and India won’t come into play when this bunch of boys hit the ground tomorrow,” he added.

“We are going to play India tomorrow. But I have no idea about my rivals. We have prepared to our strengths and we’ll give our best to churn out the best possible result,” said the coach of UAE who were Runners-up in the Championship back in 2002. “We began our preparation from June. We had an exposure trip to Malaysia where we played four matches. Now we’re here to test ourselves.”

On being asked about their target from this tournament, the UAE gaffer added, “Everyone has set a target here. We too have come with our target. We’ll look from match to match and first of all, we will pounce on to reach the next round.”

Nicolai also mentioned the injured Reamsochung Chongompipa Aimol who fractured his leg in the last practice match in Germany, “We will miss him. He has not recovered. He had 49 stitches and at that moment it was pretty bad. But he will recover and we are there for him”

The UAE team was the first among the 16 Teams to have landed in Goa about a week ago and will provide a stern test for the Indian colts.

The match will start at 7 PM in Fatorda on Wednesday (September 15, 2016) and will be telecast live on Star Sports network.

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India is grouped against the United Arab Emirates, IR Iran and Saudi Arabia in the group A. Defending champions DPR Korea are clubbed with Uzbekistan, Thailand and Yemen in the Group D.

Comparatively, A difficult task for the blues. Will be a test of skill and strength to make a mark in the group stage.

The 21 Indian players are listed below:

Goalkeepers: Dheeraj Singh Moirangthem, Prabhsukhan Singh Gill, Mohammad Nawaz

Defenders: Boris Singh Thangjam, Jitendra Singh, Mohammed Sarif Khan, Mohamad Rakip, Gaston D’Silva, Narender

Midfielders: Sanjeev Stalin, Suresh Singh Wangjam, Khumanthem Ninthoinganba Meetei, Amarjit Singh Kiyam, Komal Thatal, Aniket Anil Jadhav, Lalengmawia, Saurabh Meher, Joseph Vanlalhruaia

Forwards: Aman Chetri, Rahul Kannoly Praveen, Nonganba Singh Akoijam.

With all support for a successful campaign, Football counter backs the blue.

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