UNDATED: India’s premiere football tournament, the I-League kicks off on Saturday with as many as six teams including defending champions Churchill Brothers beginning their campaign on the first day of the seventh edition of the tournament.
While Churchill play Salgaocar FC, Mohammedan Sporting will face Pune FC in the lung opener and Mumbai FC will lock horns with Sporting Clube de Goa.
Churchill Brothers will look to start the tournament on a winning note against Salgaocar in Duler (Goa).
The defending champions hope to retain their crown despite seeing a lot of their star players leave at the end of the last campaign.
Churchill Brothers coach Sukhwinder Singh, who has taken over from Subhash Bhowmick, believes his side were well prepared to defend the title.
Churchill are a mixture of experience and youth and has the ability to score from set-pieces. Young blood Richard Costa, Alesh Sawant, Elvis Barreto and Jaison Vales have been outstanding performers in the local league.
Among the foreigners, Portuguese Hugo Machado is the right find to replace Roberto Silva, who has moved to Dempo. He, along with Henri Antchouet, can give tough time to rival defenders.
Nigerian Hammed Adesope, along with D Ravanan and Denzil Franco, looked solid in the defence. Others like Lenny Rodrigues, Bikramjit Singh and Sukhwinder Singh will provide the required support.
Salgaocar, who did not get a good start in the last season of the I-League, would look to put up a spirited show under their new coach Derrick Pereira. They started well in the GPL but somehow could not maintain consistency and have slipped to fourth position.
Durand high Mohammedan look for good start
On a high after their Durand Cup triumph, qualifiers Mohammedan Sporting will face last season’s runners-up Pune FC in Kolkata on Saturday.
Having won the Durand Cup after 73 years on Thursday, Mohammedan Sporting will look to start with a bang as they return to the top tier league after four years, while a new look Pune outfit will look to find rhythm under Dutchman Mike Snoei, who replaced Derrick Pereira.
Bucking the trend, Mohammedan Sporting have invested heavily with a star studded foreigners line-up in Luciano Sabrosa, Penn Orji, Tolgay Ozbey and Joshimar d’Silva.
Wih immense experience in Indian football, particularly in Kolkata, Mohammedan Sporting under Nigerian coach Abdul Aziz Moshood will be the team to watch out for this season.
But Mohammedan Sporting will miss out the Brazilian defender Sabrosa who suffered an arm injury in the Durand Cup final against ONGC last night.
Among Pune FC’s foreigners, only Ivorian midfielder Douhou Pierre has previous experience of playing in India but the other three too have impressive profiles as the team has the focus on youth development this season.
English central defender Calum Angus is a former Portsmouth youth player while Australian striker James Meyer is a former Hertha Berlin youngster and A-League forward. Spanish-born Raul Fabiani is a former Villarreal ‘B’ striker and current Equatorial Guinea international.
Mumbai vs Sporting Clube de Goa
Mumbai FC would be eager to kick off their campaign on a positive note when they take on Sporting Clube de Goa in Pune on Saturday. Both teams finished in the middle of the league table last season, with Mumbai FC finishing eighth with 32 points and Sporting ending up sixth with 35 points. A win for Mumbai FC at the Shree Shivchhatrapati Sports Complex would give them a good start to the season after their forgettable take-off last campaign. The hosts will be cautious when they take on Sporting, who have already begun their season, and have been unrelenting in the Goa Pro League, pumping in goals aplenty. (PTI)