Stephen Constantine heaps praises on Sunil Chhetri

Mumbai: India football team manager Stephen Constantine was full of praise for star striker Sunil Chhetri after the Blue Tigers triumphed 4-1 over Puerto Rico, in an international friendly, at the Andheri Sports Complex, in Mumbai of Saturday.

The India skipper, who had handed over his captain’s armband to goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu for the game, played a part in all three of India’s first half goals, setting up two of them, and scoring a peach of a free kick himself.

“Sunil is the talisman of this team. He’s a wonderful player, he’s been scoring goals for the last 10 years,” said Constantine, after the match. “He’s kept himself fit, he’s one of the leaders of the team. He is the captain of this team, and as long as he’s fit, he plays.”

Chhetri is a player, who has thrived in a number of different positions, raising a lot of questions about which area of the pitch he could be most effective in. When asked about Chhetri’s best position, Constantine was quick to point out that he prefers to play the 32-year-old as a number 10.

“A player of his calibre, you have to find a place for him in the team. And I think for me, his (best) place is behind the striker,” said the India manager.

“He brings other people into the game, he’s got an eye for goal, he sees the pass, and he works. Its not like he’s walking about. He does the work, so personally, I like to play him behind the striker.”

Constantine emphasises on giving players the right kind of exposure

India’s 4-1 win over Puerto Rico, who are ranked 38 places above them, may look impressive on paper, but the fact remains that the Caribbean side fielded a weakened team, and were also heavily jet lagged after arriving in Mumbai on the eve of the international friendly.

Although Constantine was happy with the result, he also went on to state that giving his players the right kind of exposure is the main positive he will take out of this game.

“We need to play internationals, to climb the international rankings. One game is not going to help,” said the 53-year-old. He also highlighted that bringing new talented players into the national team, and giving them a chance ranks high on his agenda. Defenders Daniel Lalhimpuia and Germanpreet Singh made their international debuts against Puerto Rico, after coming on as second half substitutes.

“We’ve had two youngsters get a taste of what it’s like (on the international arena), and two or three more, who have played a little, but not enough. So I think it’s a development process.”

The Englishman went on to highlight the importance of playing against quality opposition like Peurto Rico, in order to improve the team. He said: “It gave our players the chance to play against South American opposition, which is not something you do in a normal thing.”

The Indian team were scheduled to go a pre-season training camp in the United States, earlier  this year. However, the trip was called off, and the Indian squad had their pre-season camp in Delhi, going on to play a single practice match against Bhutan.

Constantine highlighted the importance of playing more sides like Puerto Rico, in order to bring about an overall improvement in the Indian national team's quality, and FIFA Rankings.

“This is why I had wanted us to go to the US, to begin with. So that we could get games against Guyana, Puerto Rico, Grenada. Because you learn more from playing these games, than if you play a smaller nation closer to us.”

“Busy schedule not an excuse of Puerto Rico”

Puerto Rico manager David Guillemat praised the Blue Tigers for their performance after the game, ruling out notions that his side was tired after taking a long flight from half-way across the world, just a day before the game.

“We expected a fast team. We expected a technical team. We tried to find a way to nullify that, but we were unlucky,” said Guillemat, with the help of a translator. “India took advantage of the mistakes that Puerto Rico made, and we paid for those mistakes.”

However, the Puerto Rican officials were quick to point out that this match was more of a platform for the Caribbean side to try out different combinations, ahead of their crucial 2017 CONCAF Gold Cup qualifiers next month. Puerto Rico have never been able to qualify for the Gold Cup.