Mumbai
In March this year, India continued its dominance at the SAFF Women’s Championship by lifting its fifth straight title with a 3-1 victory over host Nepal in the final.In an interaction with DT Next, Aditi, who is an expert panelist on Kick Off, SPN’s live studio show for the on-going 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup which is being telecast on SONY TEN 1 and SONY TEN 2 channels, opened up on a host of topics.
Excerpts:
Should there be more exposure trips like the one you had to Indonesia and Hong Kong last year?
Of course! It’s very important to have more of these trips because what you get to learn through international exposure is something that can’t be learned in training sessions and domestic matches. So, I think for the team to grow and for the players to raise their standards, we need to have more of these and also see at what level we are when compared to the world.
Do you think 2019 will be the breakthrough year after winning the SAFF championship?
I hope so, obviously we’ve won the SAFF Championship, we’ve always won the SAFF Championship in the previous four editions as well, this was the fifth time continuously that we won, that was a big thing. But bigger than SAFF Championship, it was a big achievement for all of us because the average age of the team was 23. I think the best way to see how much we’ve progressed was the match against Myanmar in the Olympic Qualifying Round 2 where we drew against Myanmar, which is a higher ranked side and technically a little superior to us also, but we were leading in that game twice before finishing 3-3 in the end, and that’s the reason we couldn’t progress to the third round, but it was an amazing experience.
What was it like playing for West Ham United Ladies and how much did it help you?
It was amazing to have got the opportunity to play for a premier league club. West Ham at that time was third division club which was called the premier league in women’s football there. The standard of football in England was very high compared to what it was back then here in India, — lot more physical, lot more fast paced, which obviously was a good challenge for me to grow as a player, and it made me a better goalkeeper, and made me understand the game a little better, so I’m glad I got that opportunity.
Your favourite team for the ongoing FIFAWorld Cup?
I think USA looks like a strong side. But it will have to contend with some tough matches in the further stages. I think with the players and the stars that the team has, the fitness, the mentality that they have shown already on the field demonstrates that it wouldn’t want to leave without the trophy, so for me it is the favourite.
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