Bengaluru: Set aside the difference of 94 places in FIFA rankings and the fact that one of them has played two editions of the World Cup. It’s a lot to do but if you can, you will see similarity in how India and Panama are approaching the first-ever senior men’s football match between them here on Friday. Rebuilding is the theme for both and it starts in this international window.
“You have to do it slowly,” said Thomas Christiansen, the Panama head coach. “It’s not possible to make 20 changes at one time. You need to have experienced players and young players who can show their worth. You make too many changes and you will not give them the right opportunity.”
After the visiting team finished their media duties on Thursday, India head coach Khalid Jamil spoke of having a mix of senior and junior players and using the “experience of Gurpreet (Singh Sandhu), (Anirudh) Thapa, Manvir (Singh)” to “build a new team.”
The possibility of giving new players an opportunity was why Christiansen, in charge of Panama since 2020, said he had accepted the invitation to play in India. Along with 14 players from their World Cup roster, Panama have brought a number of young players on this Asian tour which includes a tournament in Japan. “Five of them can debut tomorrow.”
For Panama, ranked 44th in the world, the result matters, said their 53-year-old coach. “But equally, we would like to see the attitude (of the new players), their ability to communicate with each other and the will to win.” It will be the same for Jamil who again stressed on the need for more games against opponents of this calibre.
Closing in on 100 internationals, Sandhu said this match, and those against Brazil and Uruguay early next month, will matter only “if we make sure we can get something out of them.” At 88 matches for India, the No.1 also said, “tomorrow can be a start for us to see what it takes to be a World Cup team.”
It was similar to what Christiansen had said while speaking about India’s upcoming games. “It will be an experience to see where you are and where you have to go and the ambition and work needed to get there,” said the former Spain international who also holds Danish nationality. Use these games to attract interest in football, he said. For India, Friday’s match will be similar to how Panama felt when they went to Brazil in May, said Christiansen.
Panama’s World Cup campaign ended without a goal or a point but Christiansen, Sandhu and Jamil said results do not always tell the whole story. “It was one of the worst groups,” said the Panama head coach referring to being clubbed with England, Ghana and Croatia. They played really well, said Sandhu and Jamil.
Twenty-two players in Panama’s squad play outside their country. That is the key to improving as a national team, said Christiansen. A country of 4.65 million people – everyone knows everyone else, said Emmanuel Lao, a Panamanian Spanish teacher and a Bengaluru resident for over four years – Panama were CONCACAF Nations League runners-up in 2025 and have players in leagues in the USA, Turkiye, Mexico and England.
Christiansen said he couldn’t bring a centre-back and a centre-forward because their visas didn’t arrive in time. Of the 24 here, Carlos Harvey, who plays for Minnesota United in the USA’s Major League Soccer, reached on Thursday and centre-back Martin Krug, on loan from Levante to a club in the third tier of Spanish football, is due on Friday. “Preparation has not been ideal, said Christiansen.
In contrast, this is possibly the first time since taking over in August 2025 that Jamil got 25 of the 26 players he had called, nearly all of them arriving before the window began on September 21. On Thursday, Jamil thanked the clubs for helping out.
In the heart of the city, Sree Kanteerava stadium has hosted some memorable matches for India, such as the upset 1-0 win against UAE in 2001 and the 1-0 victory against Kyrgyzstan in 2017. Will Panama not being at their best help India, 138th in the FIFA rankings, add to that list?