Santosh trophy: Size doesn’t matter for TN

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Tamil Nadu reached the Santosh Trophy semi-finals twice in the last three years. Prior to their disastrous campaign in Assam last year (where they failed to cross the quarterfinal league stage), Tamil Nadu, staging the event, qualified for the semis in 2008-09 and also in Kolkata the following season. Their progress was stalled by Goa and Punjab respectively on those two occasions.

While Tamil Nadu, as hosts, put up a brave fight against Goa before conceding a penalty in the dying minutes of the contest, they went down meekly against Punjab at the capital of Bengal the next year. Tamil Nadu got beaten for pace and brawn against the strapping Punjab.

This year too, Tamil Nadu team’s physical strength is average. However, according to coach Syed Sabir Pasha, the state team have pace to burn and will be a handful even against physically superior teams.

“The one thing that I realised during the preparatory camp was that we lack physical prowess. Apart from a couple of players including right-back D. Edison, our team do not have tall players to dominate aerial play. But then, unlike earlier instances, we will not get intimidated by size. What I want from my boys is a fighting performance. They should go all out and not worry while facing teams such as Punjab or Bengal. The boys have the talent to match any team shoulder to shoulder,” said the former Indian star.

Sabir went on to add that a couple of members of his squad are destined for bigger things and it won’t be long before they even don the national colours. “Yes, there are some players in our team who are Indian material. I will reveal their names once the Santosh Trophy gets over,” said Sabir.

Tamil Nadu, who leave for Odisha on Monday, will have quality time at the host city that will help them get adapted to the conditions before they play their first match on May 19. “I would like to thank the TFA president Mr S.M. Seeni Mohideen for the arrangements he has made to send us early for the tournament,” added the Tamil Nadu coach.