Captain Amarjit Kiyam had a moment of self-reflection at the press conference in New Delhi ahead of India’s group-stage games of the 2017 Fifa Under-17 World Cup. “We’re away from our friends, family for three years,” he said. “We play only for our fans.”

At the age of 16 and 17, what else does one expect from these boys? Surely not results, surely not, coming from a fractured system such as India’s. At the very outset of the tournament, let’s set our priorities straight – the method and effort is all these young men should be judged upon and not the result.

Are we in a position to judge at all? We who choose to watch the Premier League, La Liga and Champions League week in, week out but have never gathered 500 people to watch the final of an age-group I-League match? For these 21, a crowd of 60,000 in Delhi will be a new experience.

How many knew the eight players from Manipur until a month ago? How many knew the story of Khumanthem Ninthoinganba Meetei, who lost his father to thyroid cancer two months before the World Cup, or the story of Sanjeev Stalin whose mother sells clothes on the footpath?

Many, from Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli to President Ramnath Kovind, have wished the team good luck but as is often the case with Indian football, only one voice made complete sense.

“We are not going to give you wisdom about dealing with pressure or taking none of it,” said Sunil Chhetri, the captain of the Indian senior football team. “You have trained hard and this is your time. Take the stage, we will take the stands.”

He was right. The boys, 21 of them, don’t need this hype. They don’t need the weight of expectations on them. Those associated with the game will know that these are the just baby steps and the Under-17 World Cup cannot bring sweeping changes to the system.

The amount spent on this team, Rs 24 crore, has been highlighted. The fact that this is the most prepared Indian team ever has also been well documented. But rarely has anyone highlighted that the players from most of the other teams that will be playing in this World Cup come with 10 or more years of football under their belt. Three years of preparation and splurging money cannot overcome decades of mismanagement.

After all, the parameters of what would make this tournament a success are hazy. Initial targets were set at four points, according to sources, but that was always unrealistic against opponents with systems and pedigrees miles ahead of India’s.

This Indian team lost 4-0 to the USA at last year’s AIFF Youth Cup. US coach John Hackworth pointed out that conditions back then were different, that there would be a crowd of 40,000-plus backing the home team this time around.

On Friday, India will come up against a US team that has a striker, Josh Sargent, who has scored four goals at the Under-20 World Cup and will be joining German club Werder Bremen in the winter transfer window. There’s also Timothy Weah, who has followed his legendary father George Weah’s footsteps to join PSG. The US also has a 191-cm tall goalkeeper in Carlos dos Santos, who plies his trade at Benfica, and a defender in Serginho Dest from the famed Ajax academy.

India, by contrast, don’t have a single player in Europe and will be playing their first ever U-17 World Cup game. The US will be making their 17th appearance at this level. Also in India’s group are Colombia, who will be playing at this level for the sixth time with a best finish of third in 2003, and Ghana who made four finals out of five in the 1990s and are two-time world champions at this level.

It’s an extremely tough group that India have been drawn into and every goal, every tackle, every goal-saving interception should rightly be applauded.

Games are changed in a moment and India must be on their guard for the first 30 minutes against a very good US team. How they play the first half an hour could define the rest of the tournament for this Indian team.

The gulf between the teams is vast, as both coaches acknowledged in their media interactions. Football is a funny old game, though, and does not always necessarily go according to script.

What should be noted, though, is that these 21 players do not owe Indian football lovers any favour. They do not owe it to the system or anybody else to go out there and win, or score goals or keep clean sheets.

They should not shoulder the burden for generations of missing footballers, for millions of training sessions which should have been held but have not, for a system slowly stirring back to life after being in a comatose state for so long, for creaky infrastructure with dilapidated benches and muddy grounds, or even for men who may or may not have been on the cusp of playing in the World Cup six decades ago.

They must not be held accountable, nor should they be made scapegoats. In football, as in life, there is no magic wand nor a genie to be summoned from a lamp. Over the next week, this must be kept in mind while observing the Indian games.

The only people they owe it to are themselves – to go out there and play the game of their lives, and to enjoy it while they do. India coach Luis Norton de Matos said it best himself: “They are not obliged to win, they are obliged to play to win.”