ISL 2015: Assistant coach Oscar Bruzon keen to make most of Mumbai City's home games

Oscar Bruzon (Image courtesy of ISL)

Mumbai City FC are looking for a third straight win when they take on NorthEast United at home in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) later today. The win will take Mumbai City FC second in the table for the time being. The hosts, who are poised to play their fourth straight game at the Dr. DY Patil stadium, will be looking to run home the advantage against a NorthEast United team which have made the long trip to Mumbai.

Mumbai City FC Assistant Coach Oscar Bruzon is keen to make home advantage count yet again and has marked the home games against NorthEast United and Champions Atletico de Kolkata are key in his side’s campaign.

“We want to win the next two games at home before we go to play the away games,” Bruzon said while speaking to the media ahead of the game against the NorthEast United.

“In the ISL, lots of teams are closely matched and it’s important to do well in your home games. So the game against NorthEast United is very important for us and we want to win it.” 

Bruzon was particularly pleased with Mumbai City’s defensive abilities and highlighted the importance of not giving away a goal in the last two games.

“This season, we have seen that 80-90% of the times, the team that scores first wins the game. So it is important for us that we don’t fall behind in matches. Of course, the clean sheet pleases me and we must continue to defend like a unit if we want to keep stopping the opponent from scoring,” the Spaniard added.

Mumbai City have been flirting with a sending off in matches having accumulated 12 yellow cards in their last two games. But Bruzon wasn’t too worried about it and hailed the aggression shown by his team.

“I have always said that I like aggressive teams. We want to be tough, hard to play and yellow cards are part of the game. At the same time, we want to play in the right spirit of the game and be noble and I don’t think we have done anything negative.”

We are only focused on ourselves: Frederic Piquionne

Mumbai City striker Frederic Piquionne has proved to be a handful and is Mumbai City’s second highest goalscorer behind Sunil Chhetri with two goals. His goal against FC Goa gave Mumbai City the much needed breathing space and allowed them to see off the game. Coming up against NorthEast United, the French forward acknowledged the qualities of their opponents, but refused to focus too much on them.

“NorthEast have some very good players like Bikey, Kamara and Velez, but we have to worry about our own selves and play our own game. We have to be focused on the job at hand,” said the former West Ham United striker.

Piquionne was left impressed with Chhetri’s ability and felt his presence makes it easier for Mumbai City FC to play.

“I feel Sunil is a very good player. He is really smart and can play at a number of positions in attack. That makes it easy for me to play with him as he understands the game very well,” added the Frenchman who seemed to have struck a partnership with Chhetri in Mumbai City FC’s last game against FC Goa.