Manavgat (Turkiye), Feb 18 The Indian U20 women's team will take on Jordan in the first match of the Pink Ladies U20 Youth Cup at the Emirhan Sports Centre here on Wednesday. For India, this friendly tournament is part of their preparations for the SAFF U20 Women's Championship (July) and the AFC U20 Women's Asian Cup Qualifiers (August).
Coach Joakim Alexandersson's side will later face Hong Kong (February 22) and Russia (February 25) in the U20 Youth Cup.
But the first challenge is Jordan, a side against which India has generally had an upper hand at the youth level. In the erstwhile AFC U19 Women's Championship Qualifiers, India beat Jordan twice and lost once. In February 2023, India U17 women beat the West Asians twice in two friendlies (7-0 and 6-0), where winger Pooja, who is part of the current U20 squad, scored twice.
Jordan were in action at the WAFF Women's Youth Championship last December as they won the title on home soil, beating Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Palestine, and drawing with Lebanon.
Head coach Joakim Alexandersson, who has been carefully observing the clips of the Jordan team in action, believes their opponents are physically strong but remained adamant that India wants to continue their aggressive approach.
"Jordan are a physically strong team with a couple of speedy and aggressive players who like to get in the space behind the back four. They are good at building up and very often set up a high block and try to force errors. I want us to shift the ball quickly from side to side to beat their press and avoid unnecessary ball losses. We want to control the game and use the flanks and space behind.
"We have been working on our playing style, build-up, support, communication, and speed on the ball. Using our advantage in 2v1 and 3v2 situations. In defending - how to press low, mid, and high blocks.
"We want to be more aggressive and work harder in transitions and win the ball back. We are also focussing on set pieces and finishing. I would like to see improvements in how we organise the defence and open up space to create a lot of good chances. I expect our players to show courage and a big heart playing for their country," Alexandersson told www.aiff.com
The Young Tigresses reached Manavgat, a small town 75 kilometres from the major city of Antalya, on Monday evening, and will have their first training session later on Tuesday. Situated in southern Turkey on the Mediterranean coast, the weather is around 15 to 18 degrees cooler than in Bengaluru, where the team had been training together for the past week and a half.
"The weather is good for football but much cooler than Bengaluru. The hotel, the food, and the facilities are fantastic. It will hopefully be a very good experience," he added.
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