India, Jan. 23 -- "Maybe there is something in that situation that I can identify with." Amelia Valverde said she hadn't thought there could be similarities between Costa Rica's campaign in the 2015 World Cup qualifiers and the 2026 AFC Women's Asian Cup where she will be India's "leader" till the question was put to her. Then she found a couple.

"We had, like this time, around five weeks to prepare. And that, barring one player in Europe, no one was a professional. They would train from 5am to 7am, eat something fast and go to work," said Valverde.

With day jobs to hold, such a routine would be familiar to Indian women footballers, barring Manisha Kalyan and Aveka Singh professionals in Peru and Denmark respectively. If India needed to...