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| Ashim Biswas |
Calcutta/ Margao: Strange, but it’s true.
When most of the Indian players are busy rubbing shoulders with the likes of Alessandro Del Piero, Nicolas Anelka and Luis Garcia, national team captain and India’s all-time highest scorer Sunil Chetri will be busy playing the Durand Cup, in Goa.
His team Bengaluru FC (BFC), along with Salgaocar SC and Sporting Club de Goa, did not release players for the ongoing Indian Super League (ISL) and hence it’s Durand’s gain and ISL’s loss.
On Thursday, Bengaluru FC kick-off the season with an opener against reigning champions Mohammedan Sporting at the Raia Sports Complex.
Mohammedan Sporting, who last week created a flutter by deciding to close shop for the season, did a u-turn and travelled to Goa.
Bengaluru FC coach Ashley Westwood expressed his happiness at Mohammedan Sporting’s participation. “We face Mohammedan Sporting who will provide us a good and competitive opposition and we are really thankful that they have been able to organise themselves to participate. It would have been a shame if they would have gone out of business considering they have contributed so much to Indian football over the years.”
Mohammedan Sporting’s Ashim Biswas was confident of putting up a good show. “We did not have a good build-up to the meet. But we are on right track. I am cinfident of putting up a good show,” Ashim said.
Earlier this month, the I-League champions toured China as part of their pre-season exercise and though it was a mixed bag of results (one win, two losses), coach Ashley Westwood had plenty of positives to bring back with him.
The tournament would also be a good indicator of how well Westwood’s summer signings have integrated with Bengaluru’s style of play. The club acquired a marquee player in midfielder Joshua Walker along with Eugeneson Lyngdoh, Lalchhuanmawia Fanai, Udanta Kumam and Lalthuammawia Ralte.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, United SC fought valiantly before going down 2-3 to Sporting Clube de Goa. Boima Karpeh scored a brace for Clube with Anthony Wolfe being their other scorer. For United SC, Sankar Oraon and Sujay Oraon found the target.