India Technical Director Colm Toal said that the experience of participating at the AFC U-16 Championship will have a positive effect on his players.TASHKENT – Technical Director Colm Toal believes India’s AFC U-16 Championship experience will have a positive affect on his young players as they progress through their careers after they picked up their first points in Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Indonesia.
Both India and Indonesia were unable to reach the knockout phase following defeats to group winners Korea Republic and runners-up Syria, but Manandeep’s first half header ensured Toal’s side claimed third place.
“I thought it was a good game,” said the experienced and well-travelled Irishman.
“It is an international match and one we wanted to win and I am pleased that I was able to bring in five or six players to give them experience and also collecting the three points is pleasing.
“We had had two disappointing results, but going home with a win is some consolation.”
India headed into the championship after winning their qualifying group with an unbeaten record and after suffering just one defeat in 15 months following games in Germany, Saudi Arabia, USA and England.
But Toal believes the 5-2 defeat by Korea, the 3-0 defeat by Syria as well as Wednesday’s narrow win will have more of an affect on his players as they step up to under-19 level for next year’s AFC U-19 Championship qualifiers.
“You are always learning about your team and you often learn more when you lose,” he said.
“We arrived with a good record, so when you are winning on a regular basis you are not finding out a lot about your players.
“But these two defeats certainly shocked us and shook their confidence and you could see that we weren’t the team we were before we arrived. But that’s the game.
“The reason we play these games is that 16-year-old boys can get experience, whether good or bad, win or lose, it’s all something that is going to help them.”
Counterpart Mundari Karya was proud of Indonesia’s display as the side, which contained 70% of players making their debuts at this level in Uzbekistan, came close on several occasions to earning a point.
“We are satisfied even though we lost 1-0, we were just unlucky,” he said.
“We had good passing, good penetration, and a lot shots on goal and we hit the post twice and I think we were just unlucky. Even though we lost, we are happy because we lost in the right way.”
SOurce:The AFC.com
