FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup: Against Brazil, India's final chance to leave an indelible mark

India are out of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022 but there’s still a game to go for them before it all ends. One more opportunity to leave an indelible mark.

The Thomas Dennerby-coached side takes on Brazil in their final Group A encounter on Monday. Defeats to USA and Morocco in their first two group games have put India out of contention for the quarter-finals race.

Debutants and hosts India looked like a side overwhelmed by the occasion in their opening game against the USA as they shipped eight goals. No one can blame the players for allowing the history-making debut to get the better of them as most of the Indian players had not played international football before the World Cup began and came into the tournament on the back of a handful of friendlies.

🚨 MATCHDAY🚨

The India 🇮🇳 U-17 Women's National Team takes on Brazil 🇧🇷 in their last game of the #U17WWC 🏆 tonight 🙌

📍Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar
🕗 8 PM IST
📺 @Sports18 #BRAIND ⚔️ #BackTheBlue 💙 #ShePower 👧 #IndianFootball⚽️ pic.twitter.com/VUIVLyphIm

— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) October 17, 2022

Regardless of all the hardships; the non-existent women’s football structure in India, lack of opportunities, FIFA’s ban of the All India Football Federation of India (AIFF), and the removal of the assistant coach just months before the World Cup due to alleged sexual misconduct , the players have put up an extremely brave face, and after the USA shocker bounced back to give a good account of themselves against Morocco.

Though they lost 3-0, there was a significant improvement in the way they dealt with the challenge on the field. The team looked shell-shocked and resorted to a low block, spending the majority of their time in their own half against the USA. On the contrary, against Morocco, India were more aggressive, taking the game to the opposition.

Multiple interceptions were made by the Indian defence line in the first half as Morocco failed to score. India also managed to string 18 passes in Morocco’s final third in the first half. A couple of mistakes and later a counterattack helped Morocco get a win but India should take a lot of confidence from that game for the Brazil challenge.

Brazil have a special place in world football. A rare match against a team synonymous with football is a big opportunity for the home side to make the global audience sit up and take notice of Indian football. As India senior team captain Ashalata Devi said in an interview with Firstpost , a good performance against Brazil can open new doors for the players.

It clearly did for Manisha Kalyan who scored against Brazil in a friendly last year.

More importantly, it’s India’s last chance to add more glory to the history-making World Cup campaign. Even a goal, can etch the scorer, the teammates, and the team, even more, deeper into India’s memories.

“Brazil is a classical football team. A good team, definitely…hopefully, we can score a goal tomorrow. That will be a proud moment for the team, scoring against Brazil,” India coach Thomas Dennerby said on the eve of the match. “The best case scenario of course is that they don’t score against us. But it’s going to be a tough game. Football is football. You don’t always have to be the best team to win, anything can happen, and hopefully, that anything can happen tomorrow.”

On the other hand, Brazil are very much in the mix for the quarter-finals and will come into the match with the determination to win and qualify for the last eight. They won their opener 1-0 against Morocco and played out a 1-1 draw against the USA.

India coach Dennerby says, "Brazil are a good side. Hopefully we score tomorrow, it will be a great moment for the team. Best case scenario is of course that they don't score against us"#INDvBRA #U17WWC

— Ujwal (@UjwalKS) October 16, 2022

India will however look to continue their aggressive playstyle. There’s no need to change either. There’s a little to lose but a lot that can be gained. Play fearlessly was a message the coach shared with his team before the tournament. Play fearlessly should be the mantra on Monday as well.

“We have to be as aggressive as we were against Morocco. We need to be quick in pressing, defend well, and shut down spaces. We know they have a very good forward (Ingrid Aparecida Borges de Moraes or ‘Jhonson’) who can run at 33kmph. That’s top quality. They have good wingers and midfielders who can feed the forward players. So defending the quick attack and long balls is not going to be just the job of defenders but for midfielders also. We can hope to steal a couple of balls and have some quick attacks. We have a better chance against Brazil on set pieces. They don’t look as organised as the USA,” Dennerby shared.

Coach Dennerby also had an interesting trivia to share as his players trained behind him at the Polic Batalliton ground in Bhubaneshwar ahead of the Brazil tie. He said they compared the data in the first two matches and “no one is running faster, no one is running more” than Indian players.

It’s now time for Astam Oraon and Co to run for that indelible mark.

India’s FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022 match against Brazil will start at 8 PM IST and will be shown live on Sports18 channels and the Voot Select app.

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