The India football team take on Puerto Rico in an international friendly match in Mumbai on Saturday. Youngsters have once again formed the core of the India team, coached by Stephen Constantine.
The two sides have never met in the past and this is also the first time that a football nation from CONCACAF confederation will be playing an international friendly in India. As far as the rankings go, Puerto Rico, coached by Carlos GarcÃa Cantarero, are 38 places above India. While Constantine's side are placed 152nd, Puerto Rico are 114th in the latest FIFA rankings.
As per the rankings, the Caribbean team hold a major edge, but rankings in football rarely matter. India come into the match at the back of an impressive 3-0 win against Bhutan in a non-official friendly match in August. Prior to that, Constantine's side overwhelmed Laos with a 6-1 score in their second leg AFC Asian Cup Qualifier, that took place in June.
The match on Saturday, therefore, will be closely-contested.
"We are very motivated to play against a side ranked 114. If you want to go higher it's important that you play against stronger sides," said British coach Constantine ahead of the game. "I would rather lose 4-0 to Iran than win 3-0 against a weaker nation.
"There will be no change to our approach. We will play the same manner we played against Iran. We will play attacking football."
Meanwhile, the Puerto Rico football team, who will be without their head coach and three top attacking players -- Hector Ramos, Jorge Rivera and Joseph Marrero -- during the match, reportedly missed their connecting flight from New York to Mumbai on Thursday, the Hindustan Times reported.
That means the visitors will get very little time to adapt to the conditions and get on with their proceedings smoothly.
India vs Puerto Rico schedule
Date - September 3
Time - 8 p.m. IST
Venue - Andheri Sports Complex, Mumbai
TV listings - Star Sports 2, Star Sports HD 2
Squad details
India: Subrata Paul, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (C), Amrinder Singh, Rino Anto, Sandesh Jhingan, Arnab Mondal, Keegan Pereira, Chinglensana Konsham Singh, Pritam Kotal, Narayan Das, Fulganco Cardozo, Vinit Rai, Eugeneson Lyngdoh, Dhanpal Ganesh, Pronay Halder, Jackichand Singh, Isaac Vanmalsawma, Bikash Jairu, Rowllin Borges, Alwyn George, Germanpreet Singh, Mohammed Rafique, Seityasen Singh, Arjun Tudu, Sunil Chhetri, Udanta Singh, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Sumeet Passi, Halicharan Narzary, Daniel Lalhimpuia.
Puerto Rico: Christofer Alexander Echevarria Del Valle, Johnny Santana Ramirez, Joan Sebastian Morales Feliciano, Juan Gabriel Velez Lago, Emmanuel Alejandro D'Andrea Yepez, Juan Antonio Agustin Coca Nogueras, Marcos Junior Martinez Amaro, Elliot M Velez Lago, Andres Nicolas Cabrero Gomez, Emanuel Miguel Benedetto Sanchez, Micheal Anthony Ramon Ramos, Javier Orlando Lalondriz Fernandez, Alexis Rivera Curet, Jacob Rafael Conde, Karlos Francisco Ferrer Mojica, Jose A Martinez.
