Clarity on World Cup schedule has helped players psychologically: Dennerby

Clarity over the destiny of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, which was to be held later this yr in India earlier than being postponed to early 2021 because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, has helped gamers cope psychologically with the continuing standstill, mentioned Thomas Dennerby, India’s coach for the match, throughout a Q&A session in Facebook on Saturday.

Responding to questions from followers and journalists in the course of the session organised by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), Dennerby, who’s at present again residence in Sweden, mentioned his gamers have additionally been engaged in a health regime supervised by the teaching employees.

“We have tried to make sure that the girls continue to have the same focus that they had when they were in the national team camp. The first step for us was to get an answer to the question whether the World Cup would take place. Because even if you try to help them on the mental side, there’s always this question among the players: is my hard work leading me somewhere or is it for nothing? So it was extremely important getting the new dates. Because when we had the webinars with the girls, they had that nice glaze back knowing that the tournament will eventually take place,” Dennerby mentioned.

Explaining how his gamers have remained engaged in the course of the lockdown, the Swedish coached mentioned, “Before we left India, all the players were given individual fitness program to follow. They report to my and the fitness coach’s phone so we can follow whatever they are doing and what their fitness levels are. After a while, we changed the program a little bit so they get to do new drills. We also have smaller webinars. We have regular conversations one to two times a week.”

The coach additionally added that he would settle for not with the ability to go forward with publicity excursions forward of subsequent yr’s match if the state of affairs with the pandemic doesn’t enhance. “It was essential to play towards some higher-ranked groups. I hope we’ve got one other alternative to play these video games within the winter. But if we are able to’t exit, we’ve got to cope with it as individuals’s lives are essential.

Dennerby, who has beforehand coached the Sweden and Nigeria girls’s senior nationwide groups, was appointed by AIFF in November final yr to guide the Indian staff out on the FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup.

The match, which was to be held from November 2 to 21 later this yr in India, has been pushed backed to new dates of February 17-March 7, 2021, topic to additional monitoring. Five continental qualifying tournaments for the World Cup are but to happen.