U-17 Women's World Cup: India not up to USA standards but can certainly play better, says coach Dennerby

FIFA Women's U-17 World Cup opener but insisted that the home team is capable of playing better. Dennerby had claimed that India can compete against any team in the age-group showpiece, his comment coming on the basis of the close game (1-3 loss) the team played against Sweden in the lead up to the tournament.

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It was an almost full house at Kalinga Stadium, mostly filled up by schoolchildren, who egged India on in their opening match of the Fifa U-17 Women's World Cup against the US.

"I did not expect to let in so many goals because defending has been quite good when they played against Sweden two and half weeks ago. We defended very well, we had two shots on the bar and we were creating chances. But honestly USA were one level up even if you compare with Sweden at least," the coach said on Tuesday. Dennerby had said before the USA match that "if you can play a close game against Sweden, you can do that with any team in this tournament". Incidentally, Sweden did not qualify for the final round of the UEFA U-17 Championships, the European qualifying tournament for the FIFA event. Dennerby had earlier said that India had prepared well for the U-17 World Cup. However, during an interaction with media, he said that they haven't played any side of the standard of USA in the lead-up to the showpiece. The India U-17 side played against Romania (one draw and one loss), Italy (0-7 loss), the Netherlands (1-5 defeat), Sweden (1-3 defeat), Chile (1-3 defeat) and Mexico (0-2 loss) in lead up to the event. Out of these countries, Romania, Italy and Sweden could not qualify for the UEFA U-17 Championships. Chile and Mexico are competing in the FIFA U-17 World Cup.

"No doubt USA