Mumbai FC Head Coach Santosh Kashyap is aware of the big challenge ahead, but exuded confidence that his team would rise to the occasion and he believes that his players would deliver when they take the field against East Bengal, Kolkata in a sixth round I-League 2016-2017 match to be played at the Barasat District Sports Stadium, Kolkata on Wednesday evening. The match kicks-off at 7.05 pm.
The Mumbai club has drawn all three matches against East Bengal in Kolkata in the past three seasons and this could give them the confidence and motivation to try and maintain their unbeaten record. The visiting Mumbai side also holds the advantage of winning two of the six meetings between the two clubs with the other four ending in draws.
Meanwhile, the optimistic Kashyap praised the efforts of his boys, despite the defeats in the last three rounds. “The boys put in their best efforts and were positive throughout those last three games. But, we had the misfortune of conceding a couple of soft goals, which cost us of getting some good results or atleast a point,” said a modest Kashyap.
However, the Mumbai coach was quite wary on the Kolkata giants who are on a roll with four wins and unbeaten in the last five rounds. “East Bengal is a great team, which got off to a good start and they continue their unbeaten run at home and away. They have some fantastic wins recently against Bengaluru FC (2-1) a strong team here at home and then comfortably defeated Minerva Punjab (5-0), so they are the team to watch out for,” said Kashyap.
“We have our limitations but we will try our best to try and stop their unbeaten run and see what happens. We require to do something special in the defence if we have to get a positive result. We will have to defend strongly, I will plan some special strategies with the defenders and try to stop the lethal East Bengal attackers, who are all capable of scoring from half chances and taking the match away from us,” Kashyap said with a note of caution.
Mumbai FC skipper Steven Dias also admitted that East Bengal would be hard to beat but was confident of putting up a fighting display. “East Bengal is a tough opponent, but we are ready to face them. We have prepared well and according to the strategies of coach (Kashyap) we will give our best,” said Dias. “I also plan to play a key role and try to inspire my teammates to play for a win.”
Kashyap mentioned that Dias who came in as substitute in the last match managed to create quite a few chances, but the forwards were unable to take advantage of his crosses. “We will have to be sharper upfront and try to score from every chance we get as it would help us to put pressure on the rivals,” Kashyap pointed out.
Kashyap will decide the final eleven on Wednesday morning and is expected to include Theobald in the starting line-up while Robinho will be rested. Goalkeeper Kunal Sawant will come in for the suspended Laxmikant Kattimani, who was red carded in the last game.
Mumbai FC, the only club from the city participating in this national championship, had started with a bang winning the opening two rounds with convincing wins against DSK Shivajians 1-0 at home and then defeated Churchill Brothers 2-1 in a away fixture. But they were unfortunate to lose the next three rounds.
Mumbai FC vs East Bengal in the last 3 I-League seasons
2013-2014: East Bengal-Mumbai FC 2-2 (away), Mumbai FC-East Bengal 3-2 (home).
2014-2015: Mumbai FC-East Bengal 2-1 (home), East Bengal-Mumbai FC 1-1 (away).
2015-2016: East Bengal-Mumbai FC 2-2 (away), Mumbai FC-East Bengal 0-0 (home).