Interview: Indian U23 Football Defensive Trio - Part 1

The Indian U23 team came close to an upset against their much fancied opponents Qatar last Thursday in the Pre-Olympic qualifier 2^nd leg at Pune. At the heart of this impressive performance was the solid defensive trio of Arnab Mondal, Abhishek Das and Gurjinder Kumar.

My friend Kartik and I got a golden opportunity to catch up with the trio. In an exclusive interview they spoke about India’s performance against the Qataris, Pune, Tata Football Academy, the 2018 dream and much more.

From L-R: Abhishek Das, Arnab Mondal and Gurjinder Kumar

The interview has been split up into 3 parts. Here’s Part 1.

Rahul-Kartik(RK) to Gurjinder: Playing for India has been your dream. Having represented India, having walked onto the pitch donning Indian colors, how does it feel?

Gurjinder: Everyone dreams of playing for India. I was also looking forward to the day when I would play for India. It was my father’s dream too. My father was also a sportsman. Although he played for Punjab, he couldn’t play at the international level. So he wanted me to play for India and to realize the dream. When I got selected for the Qatar qualifier, everyone at home was happy. I got an opportunity to play in the playing 11. I think I did okay in the first leg. I got another chance in the return leg. Overall I had a great experience and now I will try my best to get into the senior team.

RK to Abhishek: You had a great game against Qatar. How does it actually feel to represent India?

Abhishek: It feels great to play for the Indian national team. When you are playing in front of a big crowd and they are so cheerful and are enjoying the game you have to play well. They deserve a very good game.

RK to Abhishek: Would you like to say anything about the crowd support in Pune?

Abhishek: The crowd was just excellent..excellent. There are no words to describe it. This is the first time I saw in Pune, the crowd cheering for us like this. We are really really thankful to them.

RK to Abhishek: Would you like future Indian matches to be held here in Pune?

Abhishek: Yes..Yes. Surely.

RK to Abhishek: How would you compare the crowd in Pune with the one in Kolkata?

Abhishek: In Kolkata they support the players very well. But when you make mistakes they voice their displeasure. But here I saw for the first time they were supporting our mistakes and when we did well in the game they were getting behind us and cheering for us…so beautiful!

RK to Abhishek: There was an incident during the second leg, when Ralte missed the penalty. Rather than booing him the Pune crowd tried to boost his confidence and lift the team up. What would you like to say regarding this particular gesture from the crowd?

Abhishek: What can one say? Missing a penalty is part of the game. It happens. It is quite possible that had Jeje stepped up to take the penalty he may have missed too. It is all God’s grace. But we didn’t deserve a draw, we deserved a win. Probably had luck been by our side we would have won. It is not that we didn’t get chances to convert, we did get them but then they got one chance and they converted it.

RK to Arnab: Your central defensive partnership with Raju Gaikwad was solid against Qatar. How do you complement each other?

Arnab: First of all I joined the camp just a week back. Most of the guys here are from Indian Arrows. So initially it was quite difficult to settle in. When I had joined the team during pre-season camp, Raju was injured so I didn’t get an opportunity to play with him. When it comes to playing together it is all about understanding and communicating with each other. We communicate well with each other during games. Yes during the first match there was some problem but then later on it became alright.

RK: How were the playing conditions in Pune?

Arnab: The pitch here was much softer than the one in Qatar. The Qatar pitch was hard. The soil here absorbs water quickly. It is little slow so ground passing was little difficult. Also the ground here is smaller. I must say that the grass is really very good here.

Abhishek: We need to give special thanks to the organizers here because they really did a great job. They gave us a world class ground. The environment that is present here it is very difficult to reciprocate.

RK: You 3 were part of the formidable defense that almost kept the Qataris especially Haidos out for most of the game? How did you prepare for the match?

Abhishek: We had decided that come what may we will stop them. It was a match that we had to go and win. So definitely there was more pressure and responsibility on the 4 of us that we keep things tight at our end. We had to make sure that we don’t concede. But we did concede a goal which one can say was against the run of play. Prior to the match we had a lot of discussions and we also watched some match Cd’s. We knew that Haidos likes to change flanks and come inside and shoot or cross. So Arnab and me had decided that I will to push him onto the flanks so that he doesn’t get opportunity to shoot or if he does move inside then Arnab will move closer to me and shut him down. In general we had decided to set ourselves such that we don’t concede.