In spite of India's heart-breaking exit in the Olympic Qualifiers Round 2, head coach Maymol Rocky on Wednesday said that she is proud of the girls who are mostly in their late teens, and early twenties.
"These girls are warriors. It was evident that they gave more than their cent per cent against Myanmar. They displayed footballing maturity more than their age," Maymol said.
"I can proudly say that this team has the ability to dominate some of the best teams in Asia. They have shown time and again what they can do when they play to their strengths," she added.
In the AFC Olympic Qualifiers Round 2, India finished on seven points from three matches, the same as Myanmar. But the host managed to scrape through to the next round on better goal difference (+8 in comparison to India's +4).
Barring the draw, the last three encounters had all ended in Myanmar's favour - winning 7-1 in the Olympic Qualifiers in 2015, 2-1 in the Olympic Qualifiers Round 1 in November 2018, and 2-0 in the Hero Gold Cup in February 2019.
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"The road is long. With such a young team we can only draw positives from our Olympic Qualifiers campaign. There are no negatives on this long road as we aspire to be among the best in Asia," Maymol said.
"We played our hearts out. The main positive we take is that on our day we can play a brand of good quality attacking football that can leave opponents like Myanmar stunned," the head coach said.
Against Myanmar, India had surged into the lead twice, but eventually, it ended in a 3-3 draw.
"We created a lot of chances and now it is time to get back to the drawing board, work harder, and smarter to evolve into a better team. Each player in this team has the potential to become a World-class player," Maymol said.
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