Wake up at 3 am, follow at 4.30am: How Colombia equipped for the FIFA U-17 WWC

Imagine waking up at 3am, having breakfast after which having a high-intensity coaching session at 4.30am.

That’s precisely what the Colombia U-17 squad needed to do to be able to put together themselves for the time distinction between their capital Bogota, and India, the place they tackle Spain of their opening match of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday.

Anticipating that jet lag might be an enormous hindrance to their marketing campaign because the time distinction is a big 10-and-a-half-hours, coach Carlos Paniagua devised a plan, which began proper from October 1.
Every day, the women have been requested to get up an hour early. So the primary day, they awoke at 9am, the subsequent day at 8am, and so forth.

“The earliest we woke up was 3am,” Paniagua mentioned on the pre-match press convention on Tuesday. “It was not easy for the girls to have breakfast at 3.30 am and then be on the ground at 4 am to start training at 4.30 am. They know how important it is and they did it without any complaints,” he mentioned.

The workforce reached India on October 8 at round 7 am and have been all drained and sleepy however their coach Paniagua didn’t enable them to hit the sack. Instead, they went out for breakfast, lunch and as their captain Mary Jose Alvarez mentioned, they “had one of the laziest and most difficult training sessions that day”.

It all labored out for them. They have been recent the subsequent day and have been having some nice coaching periods.

In the 4 appearances they’ve made on the U-17 World Cups, Colombia have by no means gone previous the group stage. They’ll fancy themselves this time round however with Mexico and China the opposite two groups within the group, it’s going to be difficult.

“We’re ready for the challenge. We’ve had a great preparation for this tournament and the girls are confident,” Paniagua mentioned.