India football team's performance can only go up: Udanta Singh

India international Udanta Singh feels that the Kings Cup tournament in Thailand next month will be a chance to show the upward graph in national team's performance after its creditable show at the Asian Cup earlier this year. The Indian team was on the verge of making to the knock-out rounds of the Asian Cup in the UAE in January before a late goal by Bahrain dashed its hopes. The team will play in the Kings Cup starting June 5 in Thailand.

"In the AFC Asian Cup, we showed what we are capable of. We were unlucky not to progress through to the next round. But our win over Thailand was a statement of our abilities as a young team," Udanta said.

"We can only go upwards from here and the Kings Cup will be another good platform to grow," the India winger was quoted as saying by the official website of the All India Football Federation.

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India play Caribbean nation Curacao in their opening match of the King's Cup on June 5 at Buriram, Thailand.

The fleet-footed Manipuri said strength and conditioning plays a major role in the off-season and one can exceed his athletic capabilities with a proper programme when not engaged with football.

"I took a couple of days off, and I got right back into the grind. I try to train daily, and do some sort of strength and conditioning or stretching daily so as to not only exceed my athletic capabilities but be in better physical form once the seasons starts," he said.

"It really depends what you want to do in the off-season. You can relax, or you can put the work in and get ready for the next season. I prefer the latter."