GUWAHATI: NorthEast United FC will look to break their winless jinx at home when they take on Kerala Blasters in the Hero Indian Super League here on Friday.
This season NorthEast have been impressive in the Indian Super League with 11 points from their first six matches. They are just below the top four at the moment, but with a match in hand could quite easily make the jump. There is one problem though for the Highlanders.
They’ve won three matches so far and all of them have been away from home. Therefore match on Friday will be crucial for the Highlanders. A lot would depend on Bartholomew Ogbeche, who has scored more than 50 per cent of the goals for NorthEast this season.
When the Nigerian striker has got on the scoresheet, NorthEast have never lost a game. Coach Eelco Schattorie has been boosted by the return of defender Mislav Komorski. He, however, did admit that one of his foreign players has suffered a season-ending injury.
“We have one foreigner injured who might not play for the entire season, but I will not name him now as it can be an advantage for the opponents. Barth (Bartholomew Ogbeche) had some injury but he is back. We have some Indian players injured but this is part of football,” said Schattorie.
Kerala Blasters haven’t won a single game since their opening day victory over ATK. Coach David James has struggled to get his team going and the South Indian side is coming into the game on the back of two home defeats against Bengaluru FC and FC Goa. Just like every other season for Kerala, they are struggling for goals.
They haven’t created many goal scoring opportunities either, leaving James to put up a defiant front.
“Our performances have been decent enough except for one match which is the Goa game where we didn’t perform well enough.
Goa are very good side. You have to accept on some occasions that some teams are better than you.
“In the other six games, including the Bengaluru game, we had decent performances. We always want to win games, want to qualify and win the ISL. We aim for three points,” said James. (PTI)
