Beautiful teamwork key to team's success: Captain Ashalata Devi

High on confidence after holding higher-ranked Vietnam to a 1-1 draw, the Indian women’s team captain Ashalata Devi credited it to “beautiful teamwork”. India are currently 58th in FIFA rankings and had a stiff challenge on their feet after having lost the first 0-3 against the 34th ranked hosts in Hanoi. “They were technically very good. They had a lot of off-the-ball movement. So it was a different challenge for us. We've not played any opponent similar to their style if play. It was challenging to stop them. But we managed it pretty well with zonal marking. Communication is key in such situations and that really helped us to organise ourselves,” the captain said after the match.

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"Young batch can perform way better," says India coach

Ranjana Chanu who scored India’s equaliser, could not hide her emotions. “Initially we were down by a goal. We needed to score, and that stayed on my mind all throughout. Finally, I got a chance and I knew I had to finish it off at any cost. In a football match, all that matters is to put the ball in the net. I felt immense joy in that moment. When I looked around, I saw my teammates rushing towards me. The joy was unexplainable,” she said. “The coaches, staff and players were really proud of me, which felt really good. But this moment of joy has only been achieved because we have all worked hard together as a team. I could never have scored, had it not been for my teammates,” she added. Head coach Maymol Rocky felt that more than the result, it was a showcase for less experienced girls to believe what they could actually achieve on the field. “The way they have played against a Vietnam ranked 34th in FIFA Ranking is proof that this young batch can perform way better if they keep getting continuous chances to play against such higher-ranked teams,” she said. “We started the game in a more compact and organized way, concentrating on cutting down their passes, and forced them to play backward, or long. This helped us to maintain possession and regulate the pace of the game. We made full use of counter-attacks and that fetched us the goal. The girls played their hearts out, but Aditi (Chauhan) deserves a special mention for her performances in the last two matches,” Maymol mentioned.

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Goalkeeper Aditi, meanwhile, wasn’t much willing to read into her performance, stressing, “It’s all about the team. We need to work on our consistency and keep delivering this level of performance in every game. This team is capable of unbelievable things when we work as one unit,” Aditi stated. “We are playing more confidently and we are getting more exposure than before. So at the moment, we are not scared of any level of opposition,” said mercurial striker Bala Devi adding “Vietnam were very organised and they knew how to defend. It's one of the better defences that we have played so we are happy to have earned this result.” Since January 2019, the Indian team has played in exposure tours in the Hero Gold Cup, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Turkey, the SAFF Championship, AFC Women’s Olympic Qualifiers Round 2, COTIF Cup, and two friendlies each in Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

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