India have improved since SAFF Championship 2013 – Nepal coach Jack Stefanowski

Nepal Jack Stefanowski didn’t give any excuses for his side’s 2-0 defeat against India at the Kanchenjunga Stadium in Siliguri on Tuesday despite the fact that 13 of his players only joined the national team training less than 48 hours before kickoff.

All of those 13 players have been playing at the Sikkim Governors’ Gold Cup with eight players of Three Star Club also having a match on Wednesday afternoon in Gangtok but Stefanowski just accepted that his team wasn’t good enough in this game.

“It wasn’t the ideal performance. We were trying to work out certain things but it didn’t happen for us today and we made a couple of defensive mistakes. I don’t want to use any excuses like fatigue or lack of preparation because we just have to deal with it,” Stefanowski stated.

The Polish American commented that India have improved since the last meeting between the sides at the SAFF Championship 2013 where Nepal won 2-1.

“India have improved since the SAFF Championship. They were well organised and played a good game today. We are happy to get this opportunity to play in India and congratulate them for this result,” he said.

The feeling one could get talking to Nepal players ahead of the match was that they were on a personal agenda to catch the attention of I-League clubs and Stefanowski hinted that it might have affected their performance.

“I don’t know for sure but that could be the case, yes. I told the players clearly that we have to play as a team if we want to win but unfortunately that didn’t really work out today,” he concluded.