After dealing with his own team's affairs, Neil curiously checked the rosters of the other three teams. Among them, the one that Neil was most curious about was undoubtedly the Brazilian National Youth Team.
Because domestic media reported that the Brazilian national youth team that came to India to participate in the Evolution Cup this time is composed of the main players of the Brazilian national youth team.
But Neil was disappointed when he looked at the roster. There was no player that Neil knew. This national youth team could only be regarded as the second-tier team of the Brazilian national youth team.
But even so, their overall strength is still overwhelming that of the Indian National Youth Team, which makes Neil very envious.
This made Neil sigh that Brazil is indeed a football powerhouse. Neil couldn't help but envy Brazil's reserve of players.
Then Neil looked at the rosters of Croatia and New Zealand again. There were no surprises in them either. There were no players that impressed Neil. It turned out that the international reputation of the Evolution Cup was still too low.
On June 3, the day before the first match of the Evolution Cup, the first Evolution Cup Invitational Tournament held a pre-match press conference in Delhi. The head coaches of the four national youth teams attended the press conference one after another.
The first head coach of the New Zealand national youth team to be interviewed, it is worth mentioning that the 2015 U20 World Cup will be held in New Zealand.
The head coach of New Zealand was very considerate and actually said in an interview that the Indian team was strong. Of course, this was just a polite remark.
Although the head coach of Croatia attended the press conference, he bluntly stated that the purpose of participating in the Evolution Cup was to select players for next year's European Youth Championship qualifiers.
Then another reporter mentioned Halilovic. Halilovic can be regarded as the most talented player in Croatia in recent years. Halilovic represented the Croatian national team when he was only 16 years old.
Unfortunately, Halilovic was not called up for this Evolution Cup. Halilovic recently signed with Barcelona. In fact, it was not just Halilovic. Players playing in foreign leagues basically did not play with the team.
The next person to attend was the head coach of the Brazilian national youth team, Copertino.
The last person to appear on stage was undoubtedly Neil. Neil answered questions from reporters.
"The Evolution Cup is my first official tournament since I coached the national youth team, and I can play against so many strong teams. I hope we can get a good result."
The reporters focused on Kevin Gomez. They were very curious about this young footballer who had scored four goals in two warm-up matches, one of which was against the powerful Portuguese team.
However, they are almost completely unfamiliar with such a player. Out of curiosity, the reporter hopes that Neil can comment on Kevin Gomez.
"He can be regarded as the biggest discovery of our last training camp in Portugal. If you ask me to evaluate him, I can only say that he is definitely one of the best strikers of the younger generation."
Neil praised Kevin Gomez highly. After hearing Neil's evaluation, there was an uproar at the scene. The reporters did not expect that Neil's evaluation of Gomez would be so high, which made them even more curious about Gomez.
Of course, the question that received the most questions was undoubtedly the AFC U-20 Asian Cup. There were only four months left, and time was very tight.
"Although the opponents in the group stage of this year's AFC U-20 Asian Cup are very strong, our national youth team is very confident. We are not only confident of breaking through the group stage, we are even more confident of impacting the FIFA U-20 World Cup." Neil answered confidently.
"You are right. Time is indeed tight. However, the national youth team will also participate in the Intra Friendly Cup and the U19 Four-Nation Youth Invitational Tournament. In addition, there will be warm-up matches. Our national youth team still has many opportunities to play."
In this press conference, Neil showed his confidence to the outside world, but fans were generally not optimistic, especially this time in the Evolution Cup.
Because top teams like Brazil and Croatia was there.
. . . . . .
On the evening of that day, Neil received a call from his younger brother Harshad. It turned out that Gomez's four goals in two games had reached the ears of FC Goa's top management.
Then they found out that Gomez had not signed a professional contract because he was only 17 years old. This was also the first time that Harshad, as Gomez's agent, negotiated a new contract on behalf of the player.
Gomez was very excited when he knew this. You know, although the salary in the new contract was not high, it was still much higher than his previous contract.
After finishing the call with his brother, Neil started to prepare for tomorrow's game. The first thing he did was to think about the tactical formation. Tomorrow's opponent would undoubtedly be the weakest among the three opponents.
So in this game, Neil would only accept victory. If he couldn't even beat New Zealand, how could he think about playing against Croatia or Brazil?
Neil looked at the task in his mind, which was just issued a few days ago.
"Trigger Mission: Evolution Cup
Mission description: Coach the Indian National Youth Team to participate in the Evolution Cup
Rewards: Rewards will be awarded based on the results"
Although Neil didn't know what the best reward was, at least he had a scout card. Neil had even thought about how to use this scout card. Currently, he had the forward, midfielder, defender and goalkeeper.
Therefore, for the next chapter of the scout card, Neil plans to choose a winger type, preferably a right winger. Danny Meitei and Gurnaj Singh, who are left wingers, currently meet Neil's requirements, but there is a shortage of right wingers.
You have to know that Rohan Singh did not really grow up until the 2019 Indian Super League season. Now Rohan Singh is still too weak. If there was really no one else to use him, Neil would not have chosen Rohan Singh.
In this game, Neil still plans to choose 4-2-3-1, but this time Neil hopes to attack and defend at the same time. The addition of Anirudh Thapa instantly strengthened the midfield configuration of the India team.
Neil believes that the midfield will no longer be as helpless as in the first two games. With an all-around midfielder like Thapa, the strength of the Indian team has increased dramatically.
On the offensive end, Gomez is undoubtedly the core. He shined in the first two games and won the trust of all his teammates, so on the offensive end Neil asked the players to feed the ball to Gomez as much as possible.
Then Neil decided on the starting lineup:
Goalkeeper: 1 Rohit Ramesh;
Guards: 22 Bungson Singh, 3 Sumit Adhikari, 4 Subhashish Bose, 2 Thokchom Singh;
Midfield: 12 Danny Meitei, 8 Anirudh Thapa, 10 Yohaan Benjamin, 11 MD Arbash, 16 Ishaan Shishodia;
Forward: 9 Kevin Gomez.
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I have mass released 10 Chapter for you all today. Enjoy I might release many chapters tomorrow as well as it is the start I am right now very excited to write.
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