Doing the hard yards to make a point!

Portuguese coach Francisco Neto is shaping the challenge of Goa-India's football team for the upcoming Lusofonia Games. The young and highly-rated coach believes that the boys at his disposal, are hungry to learn and improve. The hosts will come across formidable teams from Portugal and Angola among others, during the third edition of Lusofonia Games to be held here from January 18-29 next year.

At Duler ground in Mapusa, coach Neto is all focused and watches from the touchline as the 20-odd boys put in their best in the morning training session. A discussion follows after practice and then the boys go in for cooling-down routine.

Neto is upbeat about the raw material at hand. "The boys have passion for the game and want to improve. For me it is very important to have passion. They are technically and physically good. But there are some problems tactically, and with such a big tournament coming up, we need to improve on tactics," analysed the coach.

A UEFA Pro-License holder, Neto realises that the Indian weather is a big challenge, as he has taken up the offer to coach the hosts for the Games. "My first challenge was to understand what is Indian football. Now I understand what is difficult here. There is lot of humidity and heat here, so it is difficult to play an intense game. It is also difficult to be focussed and concentrate on all the practice and entire game. We have to improve that, to become better players," explained Neto.

Neto is happy that the Goan boys are showing a lot of interest in the training sessions. "Since the boys have passion, it makes it easier to learn. And I think the players will understand what I am asking of them. They will improve (if they learn). We have the best conditions (facilities) here given by the GFA. I think we will make a good job," says Neto.

The 32-year-old coach advocates possession football. "I bring the European methodology of training with me. We like to have the ball and train with lot of ball work. We practice all the situations, and we try to do here, what we want to happen in the tournament. When the players know the situations, they can give their best during the tournament. This tournament is one step up in their  football (education) as they are very young (under-21). It is a huge tournament and when it ends, and these players go back to their clubs, their coach should feel that these boys have become better players," asserted Neto.

When asked about strong opposition like Portugal or Angola, Neto admitted that our boys will be underdogs. "The teams from Portugal or Angola will be strong, especially the one from my home country as I know the coach and some players. Some of them play in top leagues. We will try to defend against those teams as we have to be smart and play on counter-attack. We need to keep the ball by being focussed against those teams.Basically it is about having the ball as when they don't get the ball, we won't concede goals. They have to know how to defend, as that will be our weapon. Otherwise (if we lose focus), we will be dead," explained Neto.

There is still over a month to go for Lusofonia Games, and Neto is confident that the boys will improve in this period. "There is time for improvement but I don't know whether it is enough to beat other teams. But our intensity of training will improve. We have one advantage over some of the visiting teams. Portugal doesn't have such (hot) weather. The intensity of Portugal team, will slow down because of the weather. We have this weapon with us. That could be good for us," summed up Neto.