Houghton wants shorter camp and positive approach to Indian side

Kolkata, Aug 6 (UNI) Indian soccer coach Bob Houghton today said long camps and negative approach are the bane of Indian soccer.

Talking to the press here today, Houghton said, ''I would like to hold short camps. Camps that are not too long and not too short either, but which help in optimisng my potential.'' The former coach of China said, ''I have seen that long camps are counter-productive. I have seen it in China. There I stopped the long camps and started holding the camps a week before the matches.

This helped in two ways, the senior players playing with different clubs did not have a problem and the players were not having to do the same drill over and over again. They were focussed and raring to go.'' ''I plan to hold short camps. The players are already playing in their clubs and do not need practice in camps. They need to set up the strategy and tactics for the game,'' he said.

''The first thing one needs to do is shape up the side and then get into details. The process is on and it will take some time before we set up fully,'' Houghton said.

He said he could not understand why the U-20 soccer players were having four-month long camp in India. He, however, tried to justify it saying may be they were trying to create a bonding, between the India's players.

The coach wants to stop the negative approach to the game. ''I saw during the practice matches in Goa that the team had a very negative approach and wanted to keep the ball to their own half and hardly move forward. This will have to change. It has already changed a little in Vacouver and the process will continue here,'' he said.

He also said it was very important to build team spirit, which would come from winning. ''If only we start winning, we will have a healthy team spirit. Hence we need to play sides against whom we can win. These are sides like Hong Kong and Vietnam,'' he said.

He quoted famous American baseball coach Tommy Lossata of LA Dodgers, who said ''The difference between a good team and a great team is team spirit,'' to emphasise his point.

UNI BA SP PM BD1524