Sport: Guam footballers continue World Cup qualifying run

Transcript

Guam maintained their fairytale start to Football World Cup qualifying by beating India 2-1 to jump to the top of their group.

Brandon McDonald and Travis Nicklaw scored the goals as the US territory ensured last week's first ever qualifying win against Turkmenistan was not a one-off.
                
Matao head coach Gary White told Vinnie Wylie it was very satisfying to see the hard work put in by his players pay off.

GARY WHITE: The players have worked extremely hard to earn these six points and we're very happy to be top of Group D. The cobwebs I guess were off from the first game too so everything was a lot cleaner and it was very very close to exactly how we wanted to play.

VINNIE WYLIE: Your team was noted globally for that win last week so there was an air of sort of anticipation around the [India] game. Did they handle that pressure well?

GW: We decided to just focus on the playing, let people talk about what they're going to talk about and our goal was to get the six points from the first two games and move on from there. The players were extremely focused, approached everything very professionally and then after the game you could see the excitement that all the hard work had paid off.

VW: That gives you two wins from two matches in qualifying - the perfect start and the position you wanted to be in after these two matches.

GW: Exactly. We know now that the game in September against Iran is going to be a very very exciting experience.

VW: That is still a couple of months away so what happens from here until them? How often do you get to see your players and what does the training schedule look like?

GW: The players overseas will go back to their clubs today and go straight back into their league season. The players that are based in Guam will have a week off and then they will go straight back into training in preparation for Iran. We've got to now prepare for a different opponent - a very very strong opponent in a very very hostile environment so we will go back to the training schedule and the training plan and when the team gets together again, prior to the game in Iran, we will focus more on the strategic stuff and tacticul stuff but in the meantime it will be a mixture of physical and technical training.

VW: Iran is a team that has been to the World Cup finals, it's a big nation, they've got a few more dollars in the pockets as well and I guess it's just another step up again?

GW: Yeah it's just another level to see where we are in world football and I don't think there's a better way of doing it than measuring yourself against the best.