Sandhu has accepted his part in Jackson Irvine’s goal after he had flapped at a cross from the right in that 0-2 loss in the team’s Asian Cup opening game.
India goalkeepers’ coach Tomislav Rogic absolved Gurpreet Singh Sandhu of any blame for Australia’s first goal and backed the India No.1 to do well against Uzbekistan on Thursday.
In an interview to HT on Tuesday, Rogic, speaking through India head coach Igor Stimac who translated from Croatian to English, also said that while playing with feet can be learnt, it is important to focus on a goalkeeper’s primary skill. For ‘keepers as tall as Sandhu (1.98m), passing with feet is a skill more difficult to master than for those smaller in size, he said.
Rogic — he has worked with former Romania coach Mircea Lucescu and at Club Brugge, Shakhtar Donetsk and Zenit St Petersburg — is assisting regular goalkeepers’ coach Frano Srdarev for the Asian Cup in Qatar. He rejoined the India staff after being with Stimac in 2019 and 2020.
“They are more fearless than when I left,” he said referring to Sandhu, Amrinder Singh and Vishal Kaith, the goalkeepers in the squad. “Their belief in hard work and repetition in training has taken out the fear of making mistakes.”
Sandhu has accepted his part in Jackson Irvine’s goal after he had flapped at a cross from the right. India lost the opening game 0-2. “I’ll put my hand up taking responsibility for what could have been avoided and be dealt better,” he has posted on X, formerly Twitter.
But Rogic, 48, said: “On analysis, we found that Gurpreet’s position was consistent with regards to the ball and the passer. He was unlucky because the ball was in a position where he could not reach or punch it to clear.”
The Croat, who worked with Lucescu at Shakhtar and Zenit, accepted that when teams cannot get out of their back third, they can let in what looks like a silly goal which erases all the dogged defending that had gone on. “You need to give goalkeepers time to breathe. Otherwise, nervousness will increase in him and in the players whose primary job is to defend.”(HT)