Sampath keen to revive Lankan football skills
View(s):Football dropped into the doldrums in the past. But with the performance of the Sri Lanka team at the SAFF (South Asian Football Federation) Championship, the sport has turned into a fresh and better chapter. This was stated by Football National Coach Sampath Perera. “In the 2013 SAFF Championship Sri Lanka crashed into a 0-10 defeat at the hands of Maldives. With this defeat Sri Lanka went down the stairway of football very, very badly. The game was humiliated. Fans moaned the defeat very badly. As a result Sri Lanka suffered defeats in most of the international matches. Various allegations were leveled at the Sri Lanka team.
Sri Lanka football coach Sampath Perera
“Today we possess strong, young and talented team. They are going ahead with grim determination. They are sure of themselves and going ahead strongly. They showed their capabilities by entering the semi-finals of the SAFF championships.”
Sampath Perera is a former Sri Lanka National player. He turned out for Saunders and played for the Sri Lanka Air Force. He was also the skipper of the Sri Lanka team which won the SAC Gold Cup defeating India 1-0 in Colombo.
“In 1995 Sri Lanka won the SAC Gold Cup for the first time. With the confidence gained from this win Sri Lanka surged ahead and became a strong team in the region. Sri Lanka even managed to win several football championships in the region. One such contest was the Maldives Freedom Cup where Sri Lanka emerged winners. After that the team slumped.
“It was after six years that Sri Lanka managed to come into the semi-finals of the SAFF championships. Now we feel that we have a strong, young contingent. One of the reasons that we have gone down in SAFF football is that we do not have tall players. Especially Afghanistan players are all over six feet.
“This time Sri Lanka gave a very strong fight against India in the SAFF championship first round. We lost to India by 2 goals to 1. India had scored more goals against other countries. We have no match experience. But India plays football similar to the IPL, which is termed IHL. It is after taking part in that tournament that India came into the tournament with a lot of match experience. Sri Lanka went to India early in order to gain match experience, but we were able to play only one such game.
“Last year Sri Lanka lost to Bhutan for the first time in the FIFA World Qualifying Round 2018. Sri Lanka lost the game against Bhutan 0-1 and lost to Bhutan 1-2 in the game played in Bhutan. If Sri Lanka had won the games against Bhutan Sri Lanka would have got ten matches in the next round. Unfortunately we lost! The defeats was due to the Serbian coach we had. This time we had a training period of three months. That was ample. Training right throughout the year makes football players tired and they get sick of the game. At the same time the players should train and keep fit.
“According to my reckoning foreign coaches are not needed for Sri Lankan players. There are very good coaches in Sri Lanka. What we need is a foreign consultant coach in order to take the team forward successfully. “The team currently in Bangladesh taking part in the Bangabandu Tournament is a Under 23 team. We do not expect victories at this contest. What we need is the experience. Because once this team returns from Bangladesh, the team will proceed to India for the SAG contest. The SAG tournament is for under 23 players. Sri Lanka will play three games in Bangladesh. What I require is the experience gained in Dhaka that the Sri Lanka team should go to Assam and win a medal there.”