Do or die match for Kerala Blasters today
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Kochi: When the Kerala Blasters and NorthEast United face each other at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium here today, it’s indeed a do-or-die battle for the two teams involved as the result will be a determining one for both to book their birth in the semis.
Kerala has 15 points and is three behind third-placed Atletico de Kolkata while NorthEast is in the sixth position trailing further by two points. NorthEast will be knocked out if they fail to win and Kerala will be left at the mercy of other franchisees’ results should they fail to pick up three points against NorthEast that defeated them 0-1 in round one at Guwahati.
Kerala Blaster FC goalkeeper-head coach David James acknowledged that his team’s performance in the previous two games was not up to the mark, but believes that overall, Kerala’s showing barring the Goa game, has not been bad at all.
“We didn’t start the season well by picking points in the first few games, and then we hit a good patch of form where we picked up good points. In the last two games we came up against two good teams in the form of Chennai, who are at the top of the league, and Goa, who are second and are in good form at the moment,” James said at the pre-match press conference.
“When you consider our game against Chennai, we lost the game to a good piece of football in the 87th minute, it was a good goal, and we have to give credit to Chennai for that. We are very disappointed that we didn’t come away with at least a point in that game, but the team followed my orders and went out to play the game to win and not to get a draw,” he explained.
When questioned about the injury that forced him off in the game against Chennaiyin FC and also additional injuries to the squad, the former Liverpool goalkeeper replied that most of his squad are fit and training, including him. “I had an issue before the previous game which I thought would be fine, but obviously, it was proved wrong. I have trained today and I will assess it further tomorrow,” James revealed.
“With regards to the Chennai game there were two unplanned substitutions in the form of James McAllister and myself, because of which I was only able to make one proper change. I believe the outcome of the game would have been completely different had I been able to make proper changes during the game,” James said. As a result, he will be careful of fielding players who may not last the full game tomorrow, presumably himself included.
James also expressed surprise about the nature of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) as it is very difficult to predict what is going to happen in terms of results. Which is why he believes that his team are still in the reckoning to make the knock out rounds.
“One of the things that I found in the ISL is that the way the results are coming around, it is very difficult to know what position you will be in. Right now, North East United and our team are in the position where we both have to win our remaining two games to go to the next round. And as understanding as I am about the excitement of the fans, I don’t want this anxiety to fall upon my players,” the former Manchester City and Portsmouth goalkeeper trailed off.