When India toppled hosts Thailand and qualified for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026, head coach Crispin Chettri sank to his knees and fell into the arms of his colleagues. The coach tells The Indian Express about the emotional ride in Thailand and his vision for Indian women’s football.
Can you describe the emotions when the whistle blew?
There are times when you just freeze. You don’t understand what happened. As a coach I am rarely expressive or emotional. My Odisha FC coaches were sending messages saying, ‘For the first time we saw you on your knees.’ I don’t have exact words to describe it.
Did you expect to beat them?
I was sure that we would score goals. We concentrated on not conceding. We tried to organise ourselves defensively in training. However, the main thing was to not play with a defensive mindset. Sometimes when we do too many defensive drills, the players go into a defensive mindset. We tried to balance it out with some attacking drills. That attacking mindset helped us a lot. When the first goal went in, the belief grew stronger.
The first goal was a brilliant strike from Sangita…
One of the best goals (I have seen). In a fraction of a second she took control and the shot.
Have you seen her doing it earlier?
We had a friendly against the Under-20 team in Bengaluru. She scored a banger like that with her left foot. She has been scoring goals like that in training also. In the previous matches in the qualifiers (too) she had been scoring regularly also. That was the main advantage. We had 7-8 goal-scorers. It speaks volumes about the mentality and the winning culture we wanted to create. We are not scared of losing, always try to go forward and score the goal.
So there was no dependance on one player for goals…
We focus on (chance creation). Helping a player score a goal is more important. Creating space for another player is much more important. So we see Sangita scoring the ball but the way Anju (Tamang) passed the ball, the way Rimpa (Haldar) and Anju combined, the way Pyari (Xaxa) moved and created that space for Sangita to move in and score that goal. The players did all the movements to make that happen was important.
Did you manage to tick the smaller objectives?
Mostly, I think yes. Our priority was to qualify. We also wanted to give game time to younger players like Kiran (Pisda), Malavika and Rimpa and so on. We did that. Only thing we wanted to give was more time to (goalkeepers) Mona (Monalisha Devi Moirangthem) and Payal (Basude), which we couldn’t. The games came thick and fast.
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A word on Sangita…
She is the kind of player who makes others around her look better because she takes that much load. Players like Sangita and Ratan deserve to score goals like those because they sacrifice everything for women’s football. The things Sangita has gone through, recovered through all that pain, got back in the national team, in the starting eleven, she deserved to score those two important goals.
How different is coaching the national team, as compared to club gigs?
Even if you had coached Mohun Bagan in the Kolkata derby, that pressure is nothing compared to the national team. All eyes are on you. Sometimes it gets to you, you make wrong decisions. Sometimes you are hyper in training and then you realise you were too harsh to the players.
Were there moments like that when you made mistakes?
Definitely. The thing is that, sometimes you see things better than the players, you see what can be their optimum. Then when they relax, you don’t like it. I have been a player and so I knew where that line is and when you cross and there were some situations where I crossed it. But that is part and parcel, sometimes that is how you trigger the players and get the best.
What did you tell the players after the Thailand match?
I am from the hills and I told them that you might be on top of this mountain but that is always the bottom of another mountain. So we have to climb another mountain. Keep learning and growing as a team.
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What does the team need going into the Asian Cup and beyond?
What they need is the kind of support they are getting from everyone now. We were in the camp in Bengaluru for so many days, but nothing happened. Once Sunil (Chhetri) came and met the players, that was highlighted. These players deserve to be highlighted the way the men’s players are. They would like to see fans singing their name.
Right now, the right kind of exposure is needed. Australia will be a physical side, Japan would be the same. When we play friendly matches, we should be shrewd about who we face. We should play teams from African nations because they are quite physical so that by the time we reach the Asian Cup, I will know which players do well against physical opposition, who are suitable against opposition that is technically good and so on. So I want to see my players play in different kinds of scenarios. This should be planned out shrewdly. Maybe go to Australia a little early and acclimatise. We went to Thailand one week before the qualifiers and it helped us a lot.
Do you feel the facilities you worked with before the qualifiers were good enough?
I was happy with what we had at (Padukone-Dravid Centre of Excellence), but we can always use better facilities. But there are so many other things also that help with improving performance. The better the facilities, the better chances of growing as a team.
