India should stick to plan, says IM Vijayan ahead of Uruguay challenge

Kolkata: The Indian football team is getting ready for another world-class challenge ahead of them, against Uruguay here on Wednesday. Khalid Jamil’s men will look to savour a positive result against the former World champions, as they aim to bounce back from a 4-0 loss against Brazil.

Coming back off an exceptional display against Brazil, India truly showed the fight in them to the world, calling for discussions across the footballing community of what they are capable of and a bright potential ahead from here. While they failed to make the performance reflect on the scoreboard, mixed responses were hovering over the team about what playing friendlies against such football giants offers if not for a favourable result.

While the friendlies seem to look promising for the team, Indian football legend and Kerala’s sports icon IM Vijayan is already in Kolkata to cheer for the team. Being one of the biggest supporters of the national team, the former Indian international reflects on how these fixtures will be beneficial for the team.

On India’s game against Brazil
It's quite an experience, isn’t it? Even a four-nil loss is not a big deal when it's against Brazil. They're a good team, currently ranked 6th in the world, and everybody knows that. They're a team people want to watch. Playing against them is a huge experience for our players, and it's a great inspiration for youngsters to watch games of such pedigree. Even though we lost by four goals, we played really well.

Benefits of playing these high-profile matches
We played a friendly against Panama first. They are ranked 45th by FIFA and have featured in the World Cup as well. Yet, we played really well against them to secure a 1-1 draw. It's only when we play against such teams that we can improve our game. Playing against smaller nations does not give us much room for improvement. It's when we play against bigger teams that we develop the confidence to play and perform well.

Strategy against Uruguay
It would be great if we get a good result today. The players need to continue what they did against Brazil. We should play with confidence rather than cautiously parking the bus like we used to. Khalid Jamil is a great tactician. He has a good game plan, and he knows exactly how to execute it on the pitch. They played very strategically against Brazil, and we saw that already. If we can continue to build on it, we can surely expect a positive result against Uruguay.