After a winning start against Vietnam’s top-ranked side, East Bengal Women prepare for a tougher test against South Korea’s Hwacheon KSPO WFC, with Anthony Andrews demanding results over excuses.
Kolkata, November 3: After a winning start over the higher-ranked Vietnamese side, East Bengal Women will kick off the second fixture of the AFC Women’s Champions League against the second-ranked South Korean side, Hwacheon KSPO WFC, tomorrow at 8:00 PM at Kishore Bharati Krirangan.
Two days of gap, less sleep, but with a fun mood at the training session, the Moshal Girls have set the pre-match tone on a positive note, and the coach, rather than reasons, focuses only on results, as In Anthony Andrew’s book, there is no space for counting reasons.
The opening victory may have given East Women the perfect start to their continental campaign, but the next challenge comes with a different set of demands. Hwacheon KSPO WFC, despite their opening setback, are no ordinary opposition. Anthony was quick to point out their quality, particularly their ability to move the ball quickly and find spaces under pressure.
For the East Bengal Women’s coach, the focus is less on what happened in the previous game and more on what his players can deliver in the next 90 minutes. The missed chances and occasional defensive lapses from the opening fixture have not gone unnoticed. Andrews admitted that finishing remains an area of concern, but was confident that his players understood what needed to improve.
“I still believe in these girls. We understand that we could have done better in finishing, but I believe in the process,” Anthony said, making it clear that the team had used the two-day break to work on those shortcomings.
However, his assessment of the opposition went beyond their result in the opening match. Hwacheon KSPO’s domestic standing and experience made them a formidable opponent. The South Korean side currently sit second in their domestic league, and Andrews highlighted their technical ability and speed of play as qualities East Bengal would need to handle.
But perhaps the most revealing part of the interaction was the coach’s honest admission about the gap between Indian women’s football and the established sides in Asia. Drawing comparisons with the quality he had witnessed against teams from China and Uzbekistan, he acknowledged that Indian players still have ground to cover in terms of tactical awareness, technical ability and moving out of tight spaces.
For East Bengal, tomorrow’s fixture is therefore more than another group-stage assignment. It is an opportunity to measure their progress against a different level of continental opposition, while testing how much they have learned from their opening outing.
Andrews, meanwhile, has made his expectations clear. Results matter, and excuses will not change them. As he put it, “There are only two things in life, results and reasons. And for me, I don’t count reason at the end of the day.”
On the team availability front, East Bengal Women’s appear to have no major injury or fatigue concerns ahead of the fixture. Soumya Guguloth is, however, still carrying some injury concerns, although started featuring for a brief period in the matches, as she is backing gradually. Resty Nanziri, meanwhile, seemed to be finding it difficult to fully settle into the team’s rhythm in the previous outing. Having joined the squad only a months ago, the Ugandan forward is still in the process of building an understanding with her teammates.
The Moshal Girls are one win away from the qualification to the knockout, and for now they will look to turn their preparations into another positive result. As the clash offer another measure of how far the Moshal Girls can go on the continental stage.
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