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Kerala Blasters gaffer Kibu Vicuña and skipper Costa Nhamoinesu addressed the press today afternoon ahead of the season opener against ATK Mohun Bagan. During a half hour chat with the Media, Kibu and Costa gave insights about tomorrow’s clash against the Mariners and much more!
On being asked about the opponents and the relatively new Kerala Blasters squad, Kibu said, “ATK-MB has a similar team as that of the last season. They are the former champions and they were the best team last year. They have a very good team and have signed very good players. We are happy with the team we have and we are playing well. The coaching staff are also very happy. But, yes, we are going to do our best tomorrow, we want to compete well against ATK-MB.”
When asked about the goalkeepers, Kibu said, “We are happy with the goalkeepers we have and they have a very tough competition among themselves to get a place in the first eleven. So, we’ll see how things will turn out to be, but at the moment we are very happy with them. He also added that we have four goalkeepers, and is happy how they are training under the goalkeeping coach Yusuf Ansari.”
Kerala Blasters have announced three captains for the upcoming ISL season and speaking of the captaincy rotation, Kibu said, “For me, the opinion of the players are important, in terms of which players they want to be the representatives of the team and we asked them and they chose Sergio, Costa and Jessel.” He added, “To be the captain, it is not just to wear the armband, it is to be a leader on and off the field. At this moment, we have three captains perhaps in the future we will have another one.”
The gaffer also commented on facing his former team and the fact that both teams are led by two champion coaches, he said, “I will always have very good sentiments with Mohun Bagan. The one season with them was fantastic. I have a lot of friends there in the board, the members and supporters But, I’m very happy to be at Kerala Blasters, I’m going to do my best, the people here have received me very well and we are starting here,trying to create a good team,play good football and that is what is most important at the moment.”
He also added, “ATK Mohun Bagan have a team which have already played under the same coach with success and us, we are a new team but in football,there are no surprises. You can’t change formations and all. And tomorrow, it’s ATK Mohun Bagan Vs Kerala Blasters, nothing more.The main actors of the field are always the players.”
Speaking about the fans and missing them in the stands, Kibu said, “For us, it is a handicap.We have a fantastic fan base; they help us in every match . We will surely miss them during the games and during the season”.Kerala Blasters are home to a number of youngsters who are proving themselves. Kibu addressed the question regarding the young ones of the team “I am not used to seeing the age of the player. In the trainings, practice games, they have to take advantage of the chances they have. We have good young players, players with experience and we are trying to make a balance. As I said,age is not the most important thing, we have young players with potential and they have to prove themselves.”
When asked about the youngsters, Costa said he found all the players very enthusiastic and wanted to learn from coach Kibu. Talking about the conditions faced, “All the players had different situations. We were training from two months before through video calls. Some players could run outside and some could not due to the situations.”
“In Goa, the Indian players started first then some of the foreigners like Cidoncha, Vicente, Garry, Bakary arrived and on Monday, Facundo and Jordan Murray went out and all had different conditions.” On being asked about adapting with the Indian soil, Costa said “The food here is spicy and from the region where I come from we don’t use a lot of spices and here I see a lot of spicy dishes. The climate is hot and causes sweating, which is something the body has to get used to. We are training everyday and the training pitch is not bad but different from what I used to play.”
Both shared their optimistic attitude towards the opening clash and Costa also added that all the focus is on the match and will try to do what we have been doing, the good achievement is to win the game.
