Mahindra United will have their task cut out when they take on Viva Kerala in a Round 7 I-League match at the Cooperage on Friday. Lacklustre finishing and shoddy defending have resulted in the Mumbai outfit dropping six points in their last three matches — hence missing out on consolidating their position on the top of the table.
Mahindra would consider themselves lucky that they are still placed third — and thus very much in contention. It has perhaps helped that no team yet has put up a consistent performance.
Coach David Booth may feel his team has been hard done by some refereeing decisions but he also knows that failing to convert chances has cost them dear. “As long as we continue in the same vein we will win...we just need a bit of professional attitude. We are creating chances and missing them. Fortunately we kept a clean sheet in the last game. Conversely, we also failed to score for the first time in the league this season,” said Booth.
Back in the top flight, Viva Kerala, after facing defeats in their opening three matches, scored an impressive win over Sporting Clube de Goa but were unable to build on that result. With three points, they are second-last in league standings.
However, Booth expects Viva Kerala to be plucky since the promoted side has shown signs of improvement in last few games. “We had some tough games in the league. The teams promoted from the second division had struggled initially but are slowly coming to terms with the I-League and have improved with each game. There are no easy outings.
Viva Kerala have improved over the last two or three games, so we can expect a difficult match”, added Booth.
Viva Kerala lost their last match against East Bengal at home. They have struggled to score and face an uphill task to match up to Mahindra. The home team will be boosted with the return of winger Steven Dias and left-back Debabrata Roy who didn’t feature against JCT. Central defender Kali Alaudeen will sit out due to double booking.
Comments