Bangalore: HAL Bangalore, who are languishing at the bottom of the table with just one point from 12 matches will host Sporting Clube de Goa in the 13th round of the I League Championship at the Bangalore Football Stadium on Wednesday.
For the host script has been always perfect till the first half - they put up a brilliant show, and dominate proceedings. Come second half, they concede an early goal, and everything goes haywire. From the close quarters, it is nothing but a known chronic illness!
While Sporting Clube de Goa has had a wonderful start of the tournament and remained unbeaten till sixth round, but in the last six rounds their seems to be a sudden slump in their performance, garnering just one point from six outing, including the 12th round 5-goal humiliation by the hands of Dempo SC.
HAL Bangalore’s manager Muralidharan seems to be aware of his opponents descend. In his cautious approach, he too is looking for a win, “We’ve to get it straight this time, we will be playing in 4-4-2 combination,” he quipped.
HAL defence will be bolstered by Rohit Chand, who would make a comeback. He will be filling the Asian player quota that was left vacant till now. However, defender Femi Joseph Adeola, who is yet to recover from his injury and looks to be doubtful starter for tomorrow’s campaign.
On the other hand Sporting Clube would also like to turn the table on, and why not as they have an ideal opponent in HAL, who could only manage a draw in 12 rounds of the Championship, played so far.
Sporting are at 11th position with 13 points from 12 matches, while HAL is at 14th position with just a single point from 12 matches.
Match is slated for 3 pm tomorrow, January 4, 2012.
Mumbai FC’s aim for a win
Pune: Riding on the back-to-back home wins, Mumbai FC goes into fourth straight home match against Chirag United Kerala at the Balewadi Sports Complex, with a chance to consolidate its position in the middle of the I-League, on Wednesday.
With No 12 placed Chirag United Kerala as their first opponent in the New Year, the Khalid Jamil’s side would not have asked for a better draw to put their campaign on a recovery path.
“The team is well prepared for the match. We couldn’t have asked for more and would like to take full points in the bag at the end of the day,” said the Mumbai FC manager Henry Picardo.
No wonder his confidence brims from the fact that their last two wins have been methodical and comprehensive rather than a slog, which had been the feature at the beginning of the season.
On December 28, it was Gbeneme Friday’s brace that floored high-flying Prayag United SC in the 3-1 win, with Keegan Pereira’s booking being the lone setback for the Essel Group-promoted team.
“Keegan is out for the match and he will be replaced by Noel Wilson. Otherwise the rest of the squad is in fine fettle and ready for the match,” informed Picardo, while saying that the team had set sight on gaining maximum points and nothing else from this match.
With Friday finding his touch and seasoned S Kuttymani also coming good, there would be enough on platter for Chirag United Kerala to negotiate.
Mumbai FC are currently on 10th position with 14 points while Chirag are two placed below but with just 8 points and staring at a relegation battle.
In the head-to-head, Mumbai FC and Chirag United Kerala are 2-2 even with Chirag winning the last meeting, 1-0 at home in April 2011.