HT Kick Off: "Happy with what we achieved as we were not expected to win a game"
East Bengal coach Anthony Andrews tells Dhiman why there was more to the Asian campaign beyond the last-minute heartbreak.
Anthony Andrews had tried everything. The East Bengal coach had got his team to waste time, killed more seconds by making stoppage-time substitutions, introduced more defenders. For seven of the eight minutes of stoppage time, and for 45 minutes before that, East Bengal did hold on. And then, FC Nasaf scored the third goal that would take them to the quarter-final of the AFC Women’s Champions League – at East Bengal’s expense.
Honest evaluation
“Of course, we are disappointed,” Andrews said the next day, speaking from Wuhan, China. “But as much as it made us aware of where we stand, I am happy with what we achieved. Even in the qualifiers, we were not expected to win a game.” Including the qualifiers, East Bengal won two and drew one out of five. The defeats came against the defending champions Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC (0-2) and the reigning champions of Uzbekistan.
Nasaf’s defeat to Bam Khatoon of Iran meant East Bengal needed to avoid losing by more than two goals on Sunday to join Wuhan Jiangda in the round of eight. No Indian team had gone that deep and, having started with a 3-1 win against the club from Iran, East Bengal had a chance to make history.
“One error,” said Andrews of Diyorakhon Khabibullaeva’s goal that made it 0-3.
An error that happened because, “we lacked experience of playing in such situations. We got impatient,” he said. “And also because Nasaf were technically, tactically and physically superior.”
Which is why Andrews said East Bengal’s first target was one win in the final round. The victory against Bam Khatoon was sweeter because most of their players were part of the Iran team that beat India 2-0 last month. Bam Khatoon were quarter-finalists last time. “We pushed them below us, so that was another positive.”
Wiser for the experience
The biggest gain for Andrews was the experience players got of “high-intensity” games. There were players in the roster who were between 17 and 20, he said. “Even if they were not playing, seeing can also be understanding. They have returned home with that kind of movement and passing quality as the benchmark. That should stay with them.”
In less than five months, India will play in the final round of the Women’s Asian Cup. The India players at East Bengal, “took on players from China’s national team at Wuhan Jiangda.” It is one thing to know of the need to make quicker decisions and another to experience opponents doing that, said Andrews. “These matches should help them understand what to expect in Australia.”
Elangbam Panthoi, Sweety Devi, Astam Oraon (recently recovered from an ACL injury), Shilky Devi and Soumya Guguloth were some of the India regulars in Wuhan.
Visa issues meant East Bengal reached Wuhan late. East Bengal trained for a month for this but some in their quintet of foreigners had to miss sessions because they were needed in Delhi for travel documents. Then, there were injuries and players not released by their employers.
Another issue was the lack of competition at home. East Bengal won IWL at a canter and the Kanyashree Cup organised in Bengal. In a bid to get around the problem, Andrews got the team to train against boys. “But all we got were physical challenges. The boys’ teams too were not tactically very sound. And here, we played two teams who were tactically supreme.
“The challenges we faced, the resources we had, I think we have achieved more than what was expected of us. And we gave everything. I think we should appreciate these girls,” said Andrews. (For the record: ATK Mohun Bagan lost 0-6 to Nasaf in the AFC Cup in 2021).
The Asian challenge over, Andrews has a SAFF club competition to look ahead to next month. East Bengal will train in Kalyani for that before travelling to Nepal, he said. And as soon as that ends, the Indian Women’s League (IWL) starts. Two foreign players will need to be pruned because neither the SAFF tournament nor IWL allows more than three to be registered and fielded. It is a problem Andrews would rather not have to deal with but unlike his counterparts in the men’s game, he has some football to forward to.
