India U17 football team refining tactics ahead of SAFF Championship

New Delhi: The Indian U17 men's team camp has been ongoing for the last two weeks in Srinagar and head coach Ishfaq Ahmed believes it's been so far, so good. The team is preparing for the upcoming SAFF U17 Championship in September and the AFC U17 Asian Cup Qualifiers in October.

"I am happy with how everything is going so far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. We don't have any injury issues," said Ishfaq.

There are still almost two months until the SAFF U17 Championship begins in Thimphu, Bhutan, on September 18. So, in these early stages of the camp, the primary focus is on building fitness. "We're in 'cycle one' at the moment - focussing on the fitness part for the last two weeks. These are young boys, technically very smart, and we wish to play a good and mature brand of football for everyone to see, and for that, fitness is important.

"Soon, we'll begin cycle two, where we'll try out tactics. We are going to start playing matches also, so that they can understand and implement the tactical stuff," shared Ishfaq.

There are 32 players in the camp at the moment. Exactly half of them, 16, were part of India's SAFF U16 Championship winning team, also coached by Ishfaq, in Bhutan last year. These are the players who have any prior international experience. The stakes are higher this time out though, with tougher competitions, a longer camp and a spot at the AFC U17 Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2025 up for grabs.

After the conclusion of the SAFF U17 Championship, the Blue Colts next assignment will only be four weeks away, at the AFC U17 Asian Cup Qualifiers in Thailand (October 23-27), where they will face Brunei Darussalam, Turkmenistan and the hosts.

Like India, their opponents are also preparing for the qualifiers by competing in their sub-confederation tournaments. Thailand finished runners-up to Australia on penalties in the recently concluded ASEAN U16 Championship, while Brunei Darussalam were eliminated in the group stage after losing all three matches. Turkmenistan will participate in the upcoming CAFA U17 Championship.

"We definitely have an eye on the AFC U17 Asian Cup Qualifiers as well. Yeah, we know that winning SAFF is important, and we did it last year too. This time, we have new players as well, with no international experience, and I want to see them in the line-up too.

"We want to have more friendly matches against stronger teams, who can push us to our limits, to prepare for the Asian Cup Qualifiers. These boys are not afraid of losing matches. After the SAFF ends, we want to utilise the gap with some good warm-up matches before travelling to Thailand," said Ishfaq.

The scouting for the India U17 camp was conducted at the AIFF U17 Youth League, which was held from December 2023 to May 2024. "Even last year's SAFF U16 players were not selected directly for this year's camp, but based on their performance in the Youth League. It shows our scouting process is on the right track," said Ishfaq.