Indian football team owes an apology to fans after Guam loss, says Sunil Chhetri

Indian striker Sunil Chhetri said that the football team owes the country an apology for their defeat against Guam in a World Cup qualifying match played last month. Guam, ranked 33 places below India, won on their home turf 2-1 — a result which left India bottom of their group after two matches. Iran, Turkmenistan and Oman are also part of the group. [caption id=“attachment_2293328” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Chhetri in action agaisnt Oman. File photo: AFP[/caption] “We owe India an apology. We lost because we were very bad from the goalkeeper to the strikers. I have never seen something like that happen against a team of Guam’s ability in my time for India,” Chhetri told Hindustan Times before adding: “With due respect to them, Guam aren’t that good. We should dominate them in the home game, I hope we do.” Chhetri also rued losing to a penalty against Oman in the first qualifying match in Bengaluru, where he scored a stunning goal from the edge of the box to bring India level. India take on Iran on 8 September in what can be termed as a must-win encounter if they are to keep any hopes to qualify for the World Cup in 2018. India must finish in the top two to go through to the third round of qualifiers. “We don’t have the abilities of a Japan or Australia. There is no Neymar or Messi in our team. So, we can’t afford not to work hard,” Chhetri said. He was also scathing in his criticism of India failing to harness talent. “We need to ask why the UAE can hold U-12 leagues and we can’t. We need to ask whether we are being able to provide for every kid who wants to play. We need to ask why (Wayne) Rooney and Renedy (Singh) are almost the same when they are 12 but then the gap just widens. I think we haven’t tapped even 10% of our potential,” he said. Chhetri is gearing up for the Indian Super League auction on 10 July — the Bengaluru FC striker is the most expensive player on the list with a base price of Rs 80 lakhs. A club decision last year disallowed him from participating in the football extravaganza, but he’s quite excited this time around — especially after witnessing the number of people who turned up to watch the games. Click here to read the full Hindustan Times report.