VIDEO: AFC U-13 Girls Championships Sri Lanka - Players Feedback

Here a video from the AFC about the AFC Under-13 Girls Championship held in Colombo, Sri Lanka in which the girls speak about playing in the tournament. Impressive stuff!

AFC Football Festival: India U-13 boys do well

The India Under-13 boys have returned from a good exposure at the South Asian leg of the AFC Football Festival in Yazd City in Iran.

The AFC Football Festival has been created by the AFC as the name says as a festival rather then a tournament where it isn't about winning and trophies, but rather international exposure for the young footballers.

India did impress the AFC experts who declared striker Lalremruata and midfielders Lalmuanzova and Sandip Bhattacherjee amongst the 'Best Players' in the Football Festival in Iran, while midfielder Lazim Ali was declared the 'Most Skilful Player' as he excelled in the skill tests.

Over the duration of the Football Festival the Indis Under-13s used their whole squad. The team won five of their matches, drew two and only lost their final game against Iran.

Manager Satheevan Balan was pleased with the performance of the boys. "It was the first time the kids played at such a big platform. But they stayed composed."

Assistant Coach Tarun Roy added, "There was a healthy turn-out in all the matches and our performance was appreciated by all."


Results

First round results

India 8-0 Bhutan
India 1-1 Pakistan
India 3-0 Yazd City
India 8-0 Bhutan (Return-leg)
India 1-1 Iran

Second-round results

India 7-0 Bhutan
India 8-0 Sri Lanka
India 0-2 Iran

India U-13 Boys for AFC Football Festival

The AIFF has finalised the playing squad for the Under-13 AFC Football Festival (South Asian Zone) to be held at Yazd City, Iran from May 18 to 28. The squad was selected from a month-long camp in Chandigarh.

The Under-13 AFC Football Festival is not in a tournament format, so India would be facing all participating sides - Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and the hosts Iran. The Football Festival is about exposure for young kids at the international level.

Manager Satheevan Balan informed, "We will divide the squad into two teams so that everyone gets a chance to play. One team will play the first match while the remaining boys will play the next."

"Results don't matter at this stage. It's important to give an opportunity to all to generate interest at this age," Balan added.


INDIA Under-13

Goalkeepers
Sam Noronha (Goa), Subrata Das (West Bengal)

Defenders
Fwiden Bargoyary (Assam), Vijay Kumar (Haryana), Konjenbham (Manipur), Maniranjan Singh (Manipur), Vanlalruata (Mizoram), Jonathan Lalmuansanga (Mizoram), Krishanu Santra (West Bengal), Rabin Mahato (West Bengal), Babu Mondal (West Bengal), Shahbaaz

Midfielders
Lazimali (Kerala), Bento Neuton Joe (Kerala), Lalthansanga (Mizoram), Lalmuanzova (Mizoram), Lalrintluanga (Mizoram), Sandip Bhattacharjee (West Bengal), Rajesh Goswami (West Bengal)

Forwards
Heisham Sailesh Singh (Manipur), Lalremuata, (Mizoram), Firozuddin Molla (West Bengal), Basu Mukherjee (West Bengal)

Officials
Surinder Singh (Head Coach), Tarun Roy (Assistant Coach), Satheevan Balan (Manager), S, Babu (Physio)