The recent success of Indian national team in 2023 SAFF Championship is now talked all over the country. Each night, the team has gone trending over the searches. One of the biggest positives of this run was the backline. The opponents were never able to break the dead-lock. In the end, it was Gurpreet Singh Sandhu’s penalty shoot-out heroics that made the team reach their destination.
Gurpreet went to his right to save the final penalty which was taken by Kuwait’s captain Khaled Ebrahim Hajiah. Some editor at TOI may have called it a weak penalty but it was well-executed. Just sometimes goalkeepers come out on top. He perfectly dove to his left and saved the shot to his country’s delight. Even prior to that, he was anticipating the shots right. He was much more in the game than Abdal Rahman Kameel ever was.
Talking to The Indian Express, the 31-year-old revealed, “I hadn’t even faced the players before and did not know much about them. It’s just our gut instinct. My mindset was to stay big and stay there (on the line) as late as possible, make sure I don’t make the decision of where they hit for them. Sometimes, good penalty-takers see the goalkeeper going one way and then, they just slot it on the other side. My aim was to go when the guy touches the ball with his feet and try to go to the right side.”
He further added “It was just me figuring it out that they were trying to trick me by showing since they are right-footed, they might go to their left. And at the last moment, they changed (their position) and pushed it to the other side. I anticipated he’s the captain (Khaled Hajiah) so he’ll try to be smart by feigning movements. I did the same. In the second one, I faked it a little bit – showed that I might go right – but I dove on the left.”
After the conclusion of SAFF Championship, Gurpreet is on his way to Norway, where he would train with his former club Stabæk Fotball in the order to continue his momentum. According to Khel Now, the Indian numero uno was offered by the top Elitesirein side Stabæk Fotball. That was in January when him and his team were in the middle of an amazing comeback run.
