India positive ahead of Syria test tomorrow in Nehru Cup

New Delhi, Aug 22 (UNI) Having won two matches without much hiccups in the competition so far and a fruitful pre-tournament build-up to boot, India remained positive of facing the ''Syrian test'' ahead of their clash with the West Asian country in a crucial Nehru Cup encounter here tomorrow.

India had toyed with Cambodia in their 6-0 victory in the inaugural tie before beating Bangladesh by a solitary goal.

Coach Bob Houghton had said the match against Syria would be a real assessment of where his team stands and the West Asian side, which is ranked highest among the five teams at 112nd, had been improving at every outing. They had outplayed Kyrgyzstan 4-1 yesterday.

''It will be a tough game and we have to play our best,'' Houghton said at the team training session today.

''They played a very good game against Kyrgyzstan. They are a strong team, physically and technically,'' he added.

The Englishman, though, is unduly perturbed by the likely result of tomorrow's match and remained positive of his boys' ability.

''We will play for a win. The boys played well against Bangladesh. We had 32 shots at the Bangladesh goal which is very good,'' he said.

Captain Baichung Bhutia also said the boys are focused for tomorrow's big match.

''It will be a big match for us. They (Syrians) are strong physically and they simply outplayed the Kyrgyz yesterday,'' he said.

The good news is that attacking midfielder NP Pradeep is back after recovering from the injury he sustained in the Cambodia game and he will be the key to Houghton's scheme of things.

Houghton is also starting with Clifford Miranda on the left flank instead of Renedy Singh and young Gouramangi Singh will take the place of Deepak Mondal who was injured in the Bangladesh match.

Mondal is likely to miss the whole tournament. ''The MRI scan result is not conclusive, but our guess is that he will miss the whole tournament,'' the coach said.

Meanwhile, India has become second-ranked team in the five-nation tournament after it jumped 11 places to 151st in the latest FIFA chart released today.

Kyrgyzstan, which began the tournament as second highest-ranked side, slipped one place to 153rd.

Syria moved up one spot to 112nd while Cambodia (173rd) and Bangladesh (176th) lost three and four slots respectively.

UNI