Asian Cup ladies’s soccer: Cop-turned-coach Dennerby aiming to information India previous group stage

The Swede laughs simply, speaks in a tender, comforting tone and says, with a smile, he’s sort. “That’s what a lot of people tell me,” he grins. “That job gave me a different perspective on life…”
On evening patrols, Dennerby the policeman had brushes with hardened criminals, intervened in ugly household fights and even prevented suicides. In the mornings, after coping with the real-world points, coach Dennerby wouldn’t have the center to yell at his gamers for merely lacking a go. “What is more important?” he asks, rhetorically. “That job changed me as a person.”

For a fortnight, beginning Thursday, the great cop will patrol the Indian ladies soccer staff’s dugout within the Asian Cup. The continental championship, which can also be a 2023 World Cup qualifier, will kick off on Thursday with a conflict between the competitors’s most profitable staff, 8-time champions China, and Chinese Taipei in Mumbai. Later within the day, India will open their marketing campaign in opposition to Iran in Navi Mumbai.

🪄 “One chance is all it takes, one goal can change history” 💯@chetrisunil11, @GurpreetGK and teammates take part wishing all taking part groups of #WAC2022 the easiest 🙌 whereas having a particular phrase for 🇮🇳 ladies 👏
Go time in 2⃣ days! 🏆#OurGoalForAll #ShePower pic.twitter.com/RDIwbIEOaY
— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) January 18, 2022
Dennerby, the primary international coach of India’s ladies staff, faces an unenviable activity: to take an inexperienced staff, which is brimming with potential, previous the group stage in its first look on the Asian Cup since 2003. “Our first target is to reach the quarterfinals,” he tells The Indian Express. “But first, we have to put a good performance against Iran and then see what happens. It’s thrilling, it’s fine, it’s nice. When it comes to elite sports, you want to be on the big scene.”
The 62-year-old is accustomed to the highs of enjoying on the ‘big scene’. As the coach of Sweden ladies, Dennerby made up for a group-stage exit on the 2007 World Cup by ending third within the 2011 version. It was solely the third time Sweden had reached the semifinals of a World Cup. He additionally was Sweden’s coach on the 2008 and 2012 Olympics; each instances, they have been knocked out within the quarterfinals.
Then, because the coach of Nigerian ladies, he guided the staff to the ladies’s African Cup of Nations title in 2018 and, the next yr, steered them to the quarterfinals of the World Cup for the primary time in 20 years.

The #BlueTigresses 🐯 are all set for the Women’s @afcasiancup India 2022 and that is their message for all you followers on the market 🗣️#WAC2022 🏆 #AgainTheBlue 💙 #ShePower 👧 #IndianFootball ⚽ pic.twitter.com/bqG9ZnxAdK
— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) January 18, 2022
Sweden to Nigeria to India
India, although, shall be a distinct problem. The earlier two nationwide groups Dennerby coached had a correct soccer tradition. “In Sweden, most of the girls in the national team have been playing football since they were six years old. It starts with one or two times a week to at least five or six times when they are 15-16 years old with their academy teams. So when they arrive in the national team, they are experienced already. They also play every weekend in the league. To play that much football 11 months a year helps a lot,” he says.
If Sweden had a stable construction, the gamers in Nigeria had a profitable mentality. “The girls were physical, strong, powerful players. Not always super organised, but they had that feeling that ‘no one can beat us, we are number 1.’ They were strong mentally to handle every situation.”
When he accepted the supply to return to India, Dennerby had no data of Indian soccer. And he wasn’t the one one.

Karaoke session, from one bus to a different 🚌 feat. MC @aditi03chauhan 🎤, @ManishaKalyan4 , @DalimaChhibber , Renu and the #BlueTigresses 🐯🎵#WAC2022 🏆 #AgainTheBlue 💙 #ShePower 👧 #IndianFootball ⚽ pic.twitter.com/ULgC1dTWJJ
— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) January 17, 2022
Women’s soccer has at all times been an afterthought in India. There has been no correct league, just about no funding, and no matches for the nationwide staff – actually none of this stage. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has taken child steps in rectifying the scenario within the final two years. But the injury attributable to many years of neglect can’t be undone in such a short while.
The federation hopes the Asian Cup and the under-17 World Cup, which India will host later within the yr, will fast-track the event of the ladies’s recreation. Dennerby, who learnt about his gamers after watching movies despatched by junior ladies’s coach Alex Ambrose, was initially employed to educate the under-17s. However, after their World Cup received postponed because of the pandemic, he was given cost of the senior facet in August final yr.
200-plus classes, 7 worldwide matches
Five months is barely any time to arrange a staff for a contest of this magnitude. But it’s not like he’s needed to begin from scratch.
Dennerby, who learnt about his gamers after watching movies despatched by junior ladies’s coach Alex Ambrose, was initially employed to educate the under-17s. (File)
The Indian gamers, he says, have been speedy and had a superb approach. They, nevertheless, wanted route in the best way they performed. “When you have speed, you need to find the best way to use it. For us, that meant not sending so many long balls for the forwards. So we try to build up, so we can play the crucial pass with more accuracy, making it harder to defend. And then use our speed.”
To final 90 minutes whereas enjoying with velocity requires a excessive stage of endurance, which India lacked. “It was enough to play one game, rest for a week and then play again. But that’s not what’s going on when you come to a tournament,” Dennerby says.

Insert “How it started vs How it is going template” 🪄
Presenting the transformation of all amenities which at the moment are in readiness to host the AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022! 💯
3️⃣ Days to #WAC2022 🏆#OurGoalForAll #ShePower pic.twitter.com/HzUXZCWCYD
— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) January 17, 2022
He roped in Swedish World Cupper Jane Tornqvist, one of many best defenders of her technology, because the power and conditioning coach. Tornqvist’s activity is to assist the staff attain a stage the place they’ll play a match each three days with the identical depth.

“We have had 90 football sessions, 50 strength sessions, 50 running sessions, seven national team games, 10 internal games, 3 games against local teams,” Dennerby says. “We have had over 200 sessions since we started in August. So even if we learnt one thing in every session, we have learnt 200 things.” Dennerby pauses for a second, smiles, and provides: “Hopefully, we have improved.”
With little or no worldwide publicity for the staff, the coach and his gamers enter the match blindfolded. It’ll be the younger staff’s greatest problem but. And whereas the gamers will struggle it out on the pitch, they’ll have the great cop patrolling the dugout.