Farias battles injuries while Zico looks to recover from his career's worst loss as NEUnited host FC Goa today
NorthEast United play their first home match today in Guwahati and head coach Cesar Farias seems to be battling with an injury list, which is longer than the substitution list.
Marquee player Simao Sabrosa is yet to make his ISL debut and it seems he will take some more time to take the ground. Fellow countrymen Miguel Garcia who sustained a hamstring injury in the first match will now fly back home for better treatment and will not be available for at least three weeks. Holicharan Nazary is recovering from an injury and is practicing, but is unlikely to make it to the playing XI. On the other hand Ralte, Kondwani Mtonga and Seityasen Singh have all been sidelined.
Speaking to the media ahead of the match, Cesar Farias said, ‘We have good precision, good timing and good attitude of players. But the problem is injuries. We have a lot of international players injured. We played a good last game and we created more possibilities for goals. But it is very important to finish with a goal and finish with a win. Tomorrow it is important to win.’
On being asked about what the strategy of the team would be with such of pool of key players missing, the coach further added:
‘We have to believe in the Indian player and other players which we have. We have to play with accuracy and focus. We have to believe in ourselves. We need combine well and control the ball and pass well. We also need to have good possession of the ball. We need to have a good mental attitude and take it easy.’
Goa look to recover after Zico’s worst career loss
Meanwhile FC Goa who had a disastrous game last match, has travelled to Guwahati without their marquee player Lucio, who has complained of muscle pain.
The pre conference however resonated again of Goa’s last loss to Chennai. On being asked about the 4-0 defeat, coach and Brazilian legend Zico said:
‘There was a plan to specially mark Elano and Mendoza, but unfortunately in the due course of the match it did not work out as we expected it to be. So it can happen in football you see, sometimes you have the best plans and players, but at the time of the game things don’t work out. And also the other team can batter game.’
He also claimed it to be his worst defeat as coach as he further added: ‘It was a loss that I was very sad with, because in my 16 years of career, I have never lost a match 4-0’
Apart from Lucio the team has no active injuries. And when inquired about the unavailability of Narayan Das and Pronoy Halder, who aren’t available due to national duty. Zico replied with a laugh, ‘They haven’t played any game for us. We are not even missing them yet.’
On further being asked about how he rated his opposition, the coach remarked, ‘We respect all the teams that we play. I have watched some games of NorthEast and even in their last game they did not deserve the loss. We are expecting a very good game, a very difficult game tomorrow.’