Wednesday , May 1 2024

I-League: DSK Shivajians welcome East Bengal in first home match!

DSK Shivajians FC will host East Bengal Club on Saturday, January 14 at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune in the second round of 2016-17 I-League.

“We have good players who can win games for us. The first thing is you need to work hard on your positions, and that is something we have worked on in training this week,” said East Bengal coach Morgan in the pre-match press conference.

The Kolkata outfit have travelled with a 22-man squad. The inclusion of prolific forward Robin Singh in the Red & Gold camp will boost the squad, highlights Trevor Morgan. “It is an important game for us. Last week we did not play to our full potential.”

Morgan added, “Last time we trained with just one forward. This time in the training I had four strikers available.” On who will fill the role of an under-22 in the XI against DSK Shivajians on Saturday, Morgan said that there are two under-22 players in the team and it is to be seen who starts tomorrow.

East Bengal’s Lalrindika Ralte expressed, “The team is ready and have improved in training on mistakes from the first match.” East Bengal drew 1-1 in the opening Hero I-League fixture of the season against Aizwal FC. Coach Trevor also expressed the same pointing the improvement in the squad over the past four days in training.

“It is exciting (first home game). There are no easy games in this league and we will play against one of the most recognised and successful teams in India, which is great,” mentions Dave Rogers, DSK Shivajians manager.

Meanwhile, Dave Rogers hints about Indian Spiderman Subrata Pal might get a start tomorrow, but only tells, “he will train and will be assessed for tomorrow’s match”.

Dave Rogers purposefully expressed about the expectations from this season, “We don’t set targets. We look at progress. At the end of the season, we will look back and assess everything and see where we are.”

As DSK Shivajians and East Bengal entered the field, both sides will have plenty to talk about on the football pitch. As neither side were able to get off to a positive result in their previous Hero I-League encounters.

by I-League Media

About Arunava Chaudhuri

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