Nepal´s coach Krishna Thapa declared Nepali international forward-cum-midfielder Khawas as the captain of the team on Thursday during a press conference and defender Bikash Singh Chhetri is named as vice-captain. [break]
Host Nepal is pitted against Jordan, Uzbekistan, Yemen and Bangladesh in group D, in the age group tournament introduced by AFC for the first time. Top two teams of the group will secure semifinal berth for the finals to be held on 2013. Nepal is scheduled to take on Bangladesh in its first match on Saturday.
According to coach Thapa, Khawas was chosen captain on the basis of seniority and the probability of being included in the starting line up in every match Nepal plays.
Despite his side not getting opportunity to play warm up match with any foreign teams, Thapa said that there was strong chance of host Nepal qualifying for the final rounds. "Our aim is to beat Bangladesh and Yemen," Thapa said, adding, "Bangladesh and Nepal are on equal footing as teams. We will also have the advantage of host. Yemen is a weaker side and ranks lower than Nepal in FIFA rankings. We could beat them."
Coach Thapa has rated Jordan and Uzbekistan as the strong opponents for Nepal. "Jordan and Uzbekistan are stronger sides than Nepal. They are tactically, technically as well as physically better compared to Nepal," Thapa said. "We´ll change our strategy and tactics when we take them. We will try to hold them for draw."
According to Thapa, he had requested All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) to arrange some warm up matches with stronger international teams. But ANFA could not arrange a match with any international side. "Warm up matches with strong international team could have been fruitful. However, we played some friendly matches with local teams like Armed Police Force (APF), Nepal Army and others."
Thapa also informed that the team was free from injury and had preparation of one and half month. "We had conditioning (fitness) training for the initial three weeks and we conducted technical and tactical training for 10 days. Since Wednesday we have started set practice."
Meanwhile, ANFA has hiked the price of tickets for VIP parapet to Rs 7000, an increase of Rs 200. The ticket price for ordinary parapet is Rs 300.
According to ANFA General Secretary Dhirendra Pradhan, all the preparations for the tournament are over. The estimated cost of hosting the tournament is Rs 8 million and ANFA hopes to raise Rs 3 million from the gate money. "We did not receive any financial support from AFC and we have requested the government to provide some amount," said Ganesh Thapa, ANFA president.
Two matches will be held per day. The first match will begin at 3 pm and the second, to be held under floodlights, will start from 6:10 pm.
Related story
Khawas treble seals commanding Army win
