KOCHI: While the Indian women's national team players are starstruck in getting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play against Brazilian players like Marta and Formiga Mota, head coach Thomas Dennerby believes that the focus for him will be on doing a self-evaluation of his team.
"I will not focus so much on the result because we are still in preparation mode before the AFC Women's Championship starts in January. It is more to find out whether we are doing the right thing on the pitch. And to evaluate the performance of the players in each and every department. We are going to be playing three really good quality games," said Dennerby in a virtual media interaction on Friday.
The veteran coach added that the big game will be against Brazil but the focus of these games was more on understanding where India stood against superior opponents.
"In the first game we face Brazil after a long travel and will have to deal with jet lag and all, but of course we will try to do our best against Brazil. The second game against Chile and Venezuela, they are good teams and not at the same level as Brazil. Hopefully, we can come home with three good performances. That's the only thing that is important to me," he said.
Meanwhile, the Indian team captain Ashalata Devi could not hide her excitement to play against star players like Marta and Formiga.
"We are dying to play against these players because so many of us have grown up idolising these players. I feel that our team is operating at a good level at the moment and all the players are looking forward to giving their best. The whole team has been preparing hard for the last three to four months and to be playing against teams like Brazil would help us raise our level," said Devi.
India will face Brazil on November 25 before taking on Chile on November 28. In the last match of the four-nation tournament, they will face Venezuela on December 1.