Dempo to challenge McDowell Mohun Bagan: Dempo Sports Club coach Armando Colaco is focusing on the strength of his own side rather than the weakness of Mohun Bagan as the two teams square up for a heady I-League battle at the Nehru Stadium in Fatorda on Wednesday.
Dempo and Mohun Bagan are two of the only three teams to have won both of their opening rounds matches – Churchill Brothers being the other – and the hosts are now looking to complete a hat-trick of wins in the competition.
“I’ve got no reason to complain about the first two rounds. The boys have been fantastic,” said Colaco ahead of the Mohun Bagan battle.
Dempo huffed and puffed their way to a solitary goal victory over defending champions Salgaocar Sports Club in the opener and then blew away Mumbai FC 4-1. But while those wins would have pleased the former India coach, he is aware that Mohun Bagan will be the toughest competition yet despite the visitors missing out on players like Odafe Okolie and Jose Ramirez Barreto, both of whom are nursing injuries.
“I don’t believe that Odafe and Barreto are unavailable. I won’t be surprised if they take the field. But to be honest, i am not bothered about who they have and don’t have. I am happy that my players are executing the plans to perfection,” said Colaco.
The coach said he would continue to field the same starting eleven which means Nigerian striker Ranty Martins will be the lone foreigner in the first eleven as Joaquim Abranches will start ahead of Koko Sakibo. “Abranches has missed a couple of chances but who doesn’t? He is doing a fine job on the field and deserves a starting spot. We must keep faith in the players and they will deliver for sure,” said the Dempo coach.
Mohun Bagan will be without two of its sharpest weapons – Odafe Okolie and Jose Barreto – and the team management will have to come up with something special to counter a defence, led by Mahesh Gawli, that has not conceded a single goal in two games.
Coach Prasanta Bannerjee and technical director Subrata Bhattacharya could possibly start with India striker Sunil Chhetri and Ashim Biswas while the remainder of the squad is likely to remain unchanged.
High time for East Bengal to start winning: Kingfisher East Bengal has its task cut out in their I-League Round 3 match against Mumbai FC after having made tentative start to the 2011-12 season with one loss and a draw.
If it wasn’t for Baljit Saini, East Bengal would have been scrapping at the bottom of the table when he had scored an late equalizer to give Trevor Morgan’s side some respite by drawing the Round II match against Chirag United.
So far, East Bengal haven’t played like a team that finished runners-up of the 2010-11 season, but the Balewadi Sports Complex here in Pune being neutral ground for both teams, the third round match provides an apt chance for the Kolkata giants to score their first win of the season.
The Red and Gold brigade looks likelier to end the drought given that it has full team at its disposal. Trevor Morgan has been good influence and though it hasn’t translated into the scoring charts, the East Bengal coach will be the key factor in the tomorrow’s match.
The Kolkatans wouldn’t have made a better start to the season by winning Super Cup by beating Salgaocar SC in sudden death, but since then the slide is evident.
“The situation in each match is different and Mumbai FC are a good team but past form or head to heads don’t count as anything,” said Morgan.
There are initial exuberance in the last match before the game fell into a lull phase as the two sides preferred caution over exuberance. That wasn’t a good idea and I have talked to the team regarding this,” he added.
Penn Orgi, who sat out for Alan Gow can claim his place back as Gow’s presence hardly made a difference to East Bengal’s fortunes. Tolgay Ozbey had been good, but he was stranded alone in the front with his Gow being feeble upfront.
Mumbai FC, on the other hand would like to carry ‘home’ team’s benefit and the fact that on the same ground they scored their resounding 4-1 win against Air India in their season opener.
Pailan Arrows to face HAL Bangalore challenge: After losing two games back to back Pailan Arrows have fallen under pressure but the goalkeeping coach, Tanmoy Bose said that “Even last year we faltered but came back playing well in each game”
He said due to injuries and many players being on the national duty, many from the regular squad are not available for the games but from the Lajong game Pailan Arrow hopes to have all players back in action.
Due to personal reasons Sukhwinder Singh the coach of the Pailan Arrow team had to go back home in place of whom Tanmoy Bose and Sujit Chakraborty will be in charge of the team.
Tanmoy Bose also said that, “Even last year we lost two games but we came back fighting. We only have problems as we lack experience but I am sure that we will gain experience through playing matches.”
In the Federation cup Pailan Arrows defeated HAL in the group stages and Tanmoy Bose believes that they can do the same even in the I-league.
Gurpreet Junior and Abhinaba Bagh will not be available for the upcoming fixture due to injury and suspension due to red card respectively
From HAL’s point of view they have also lost two games back to back but hope to deliver from this game as M.Muralidharan said, “We respect Pailan Arrows but we have come to Kolkata to take a point from here.”