India coach Crispin Chettri's advice to charges after Asian Cup qualification: ‘You might be on top of this mountain but it's the bottom of another'

Indian Express

10-07-2025

When India toppled hosts Thailand and qualified for the AFC Women's Asian Cup 2026, head coach Crispin Chettri sank to his knees and fell into the arms of his colleagues. The coach tells The Indian Express about the emotional ride in Thailand and his vision for Indian women's football.
Excerpts:
There are times when you just freeze. You don't understand what happened. As a coach I am rarely expressive or emotional. My Odisha FC coaches were sending messages saying, 'For the first time we saw you on your knees.' I don't have exact words to describe it.
I was sure that we would score goals. We concentrated on not conceding. We tried to organise ourselves defensively in training. However, the main thing was to not play with a defensive mindset. Sometimes when we do too many defensive drills, the players go into a defensive mindset. We tried to balance it out with some attacking drills. That attacking mindset helped us a lot. When the first goal went in, the belief grew stronger.
One of the best goals (I have seen). In a fraction of a second she took control and the shot.
We had a friendly against the Under-20 team in Bengaluru. She scored a banger like that with her left foot. She has been scoring goals like that in training also. In the previous matches in the qualifiers (too) she had been scoring regularly also. That was the main advantage. We had 7-8 goal-scorers. It speaks volumes about the mentality and the winning culture we wanted to create. We are not scared of losing, always try to go forward and score the goal.
We focus on (chance creation). Helping a player score a goal is more important. Creating space for another player is much more important. So we see Sangita scoring the ball but the way Anju (Tamang) passed the ball, the way Rimpa (Haldar) and Anju combined, the way Pyari (Xaxa) moved and created that space for Sangita to move in and score that goal. The players did all the movements to make that happen was important.
Mostly, I think yes. Our priority was to qualify. We also wanted to give game time to younger players like Kiran (Pisda), Malavika and Rimpa and so on. We did that. Only thing we wanted to give was more time to (goalkeepers) Mona (Monalisha Devi Moirangthem) and Payal (Basude), which we couldn't. The games came thick and fast.
She is the kind of player who makes others around her look better because she takes that much load. Players like Sangita and Ratan deserve to score goals like those because they sacrifice everything for women's football. The things Sangita has gone through, recovered through all that pain, got back in the national team, in the starting eleven, she deserved to score those two important goals.
Even if you had coached Mohun Bagan in the Kolkata derby, that pressure is nothing compared to the national team. All eyes are on you. Sometimes it gets to you, you make wrong decisions. Sometimes you are hyper in training and then you realise you were too harsh to the players.
Definitely. The thing is that, sometimes you see things better than the players, you see what can be their optimum. Then when they relax, you don't like it. I have been a player and so I knew where that line is and when you cross and there were some situations where I crossed it. But that is part and parcel, sometimes that is how you trigger the players and get the best.
I am from the hills and I told them that you might be on top of this mountain but that is always the bottom of another mountain. So we have to climb another mountain. Keep learning and growing as a team.
What they need is the kind of support they are getting from everyone now. We were in the camp in Bengaluru for so many days, but nothing happened. Once Sunil (Chhetri) came and met the players, that was highlighted. These players deserve to be highlighted the way the men's players are. They would like to see fans singing their name.
Right now, the right kind of exposure is needed. Australia will be a physical side, Japan would be the same. When we play friendly matches, we should be shrewd about who we face. We should play teams from African nations because they are quite physical so that by the time we reach the Asian Cup, I will know which players do well against physical opposition, who are suitable against opposition that is technically good and so on. So I want to see my players play in different kinds of scenarios. This should be planned out shrewdly. Maybe go to Australia a little early and acclimatise. We went to Thailand one week before the qualifiers and it helped us a lot.
I was happy with what we had at (Padukone-Dravid Centre of Excellence), but we can always use better facilities. But there are so many other things also that help with improving performance. The better the facilities, the better chances of growing as a team.
Rohit Mundayur is a Copy Editor with the Sports Team at The Indian Express. He works with the online team and is based out of Delhi. ... Read More