The finals of the AFC President´s Cup and the qualifiers for the AFC U-16 Championship are less than a week away. Similarly, there are less than three weeks to go before the AFC U-19 Championship qualifying rounds begin. [break]
Three Star will be representing Nepal in the finals of AFC President´s Cup beginning on Monday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The U-16 national team will be playing the qualifiers at home starting Wednesday. Similarly, the AFC U-19 qualifiers will be held from October 4-12 in Doha, Qatar.
Three Star and U-16 -- the two sides starting their campaigns within a week -- played a friendly match on Tuesday and settled for a 1-1 draw.
In the six-team finals of AFC President´s Cup, Three Star is in Group A along with Erchim FC of Mongolia and Balkan of Turkmenistan. Group B consists of KRL Football Club of Pakistan, Al Quds Hilal FC of Palestine and Dordoi FC of Kyrgyzstan. The winner of each group after the round robin stage will secure berth in the final.
And Three Star Club´s coach Pradip Humagain has strong reasons to believe his side will make it to the final. Three Star had qualified for the finals as the winner of Group A on home ground finishing ahead of runner-up Erchim FC. Three Star had defeated Erchim FC 2-0, played a 1-1 draw with Abahani Limited of Bangladesh and a 2-2 draw with Taiwan Power Company of Chinese Taipei in the group stage held from May 7-11.
"Firstly, we had defeated Erchim of Mongolia in the group stage a few months ago. Therefore they won´t be very difficult and unknown opponents for us. Secondly, 11 players were in the national team´s training camp for the SAFF Championship until the Gulf tour and eight of them were in the final squad. Thus, they had good training and most of the players are in good shape," Humagain, one of the two coaches of Three Star, told Republica.
"Balkan of Turkmenistan is the only big hurdle for the team. I have learned that they had a good training session over the last one month and played as many as five practice matches. Though they will be tough opponents, they are not unbeatable."
"The most important thing is the players´ psychology and we will work on boosting their morale for a couple of days," said Humagain, whose side will start its campaign against Balkan on Monday. Three Star is leaving for Malaysia on Friday.
"Though the team will play with high morale against Erchim, we need to ensure that they will play with a similar level of confidence against Balkan."
During Tuesday´s friendly with the U-16 team, Three Star left out its influential forward Leonce Dodoz and national defender Sandeep Rai, who is recovering from knee injury. National skipper Kiran Chemjong was replaced in the 42nd minute, while winger Prakash Budhathoki came in the 60th minute. Similarly, Jagjeet Shrestha was rested due to his heel injury. All of them, except Shrestha, will recover fully by the beginning of the tournament, according to Humagain.
Similarly, the U-16 team coached by Bal Gopal Maharjan, Sunil Shrestha and Mrigendra Mishra is all set for the qualifiers. Nepal is in Group C along with Iraq, Bahrain and Turkmenistan. The group winners of all 10 groups and the best five runners-up will join host Thailand in the finals of the competition to be held next year.
Head coach Maharjan is optimistic that his side will make it to the next stage. The team had finished runner-up in the SAFF U-16 Championship held at home a couple of months ago.
"The result of the recently concluded SAFF, the long training session of the team and the result of the friendly against Three Star today [Tuesday] has motivated the team," said Maharjan, adding that his side will aim to advance into the next stage.
"Though Iraq and Bahrain are the powerhouses of Asian football, the gap won´t be as big as in the senior squads. Besides, we have been training together for a long time and the players are physically, technically and tactically sound," said Maharjan.
According to Maharjan, young sensation Bimal Gharti Magar, who scored in the dying moments against Pakistan in the SAFF Championship for the senior national team, will wear the captain´s armband replacing Hemant Thapa Magar. Gharti Magar had scored the highest five goals in the U-16 SAFF Championship.
Nepal is drawn alongside Uzbekistan, Qatar, India and Turkmenistan in the U-19 Championship. The winners of all nine groups and the best six runner-up teams will secure berths in the finals along with host Qatar.
The team is undergoing training under coaches Raju Shakya and Kishor KC. Coach Shakya said that he has focused more on the team´s performance than on results. "Our primary aim is to build a good team and produce players for the national team. None of the top football countries look for results in youth level football. They are all concerned about producing talented players. We hope some players in this squad make it to the national team," said Shakya.
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