Oinam Bembem Devi, fondly known as the ‘Durga of Indian Football’, is happy that India will get to witness top quality women’s football first hand when the AFC Women’s Asian Cup is played next year in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune from January 20-February 6. India are in the final round of the tournament by virtue of being the hosts and will go shoulder to shoulder with some of the top teams in the continent.
India are in Group A alongside China, Chinese Taipei and Iran. China is the highest-ranked team in the group while according to FIFA rankings, India and Chinese Taipei are close to each other and Iran are lowly-ranked. If one goes simply by the rankings, India should beat Iran but based on the showing between Indian club Gokulam Kerala FC and Iranian team Shahrdari Sirjan in the AFC Women’s Club Championship, Iran would be no pushovers.
Bembem believes the fact that India are playing at home will be a motivating factor but advised the team to play cohesive football and take “collective responsibility”.
“I played for 21 years but could never play an AFC tournament in India. The kids are very excited because people at home can see them play now and family and supporters will be the motivation. Another thing I am happy about is that India will see women’s football and would about the girls in the country.
“The team will have to play as a family, not as individuals. I just want to tell them to play with confidence. Football is collective responsibility and every play must take responsibility of their position and that’s how they can think of some success,” Bembem said in a media interaction.
As part of the Asian Cup preparations, India are all set to play a friendly tournament in Manaus, Brazil. Apart from India and hosts Brazil, Chile and Venezuela are part of the tournament. Brazil have announced a full-strength squad for the tournament with legends like Marta and Formiga. Infact, Brazil’s opener against India on November 25 will be Formiga’s final game in the Brazil shirt.
Bembem believed that games against teams like Brazil can help India women boost their confidence and use the experience and understanding from these games to perform better in the future.
“Gauge how Brazil is playing and then see how we can play against them. It will definitely boost the confidence of the women. Like we had played Germany in 1997 and even though we lost, we gained confidence from it. Then the same year when we played Japan, we only lost 1-0. So playing against strong teams definitely provides a boost.
“It will be great for the girls to play against an icon like Marta, I would have to play against her too. It will improve the mentality for sure. The players can analyse the idol and the strategies of the stronger opposition and they can try to put that in use in their own game,” Bembem expressed.
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