Newbies NEROCA, East Bengal eye final flourish
KOLKATA: For the third time in four seasons, the I-league will be decided on the last day and for the first time in over two decades since India had a national league, will there be a four-way battle for the title. The I-league may be forced on its last legs but it refuses to go gentle into the good night.
“Two new teams are battling for the title with two old teams and that makes it a fantastic league,” said NEROCA FC coach Gift Rakhan. This season saw a 58% surge in attendance, according to a media release from the All India Football Federation on Wednesday, with the average turnout increasing from 6,500 to 10,210. NEROCA FC have contributed the lion’s share with their average being 24,494, the highest of the competition.
Two of the four teams in the fray for a maiden shot at being India champions face off on Thursday. NEROCA may not win it but they have reorganised the established order of the I-league in their debut season. “We are enjoying this moment. That of being a new club and to have come this far,” said Raikhan.
East Bengal are unlikely to be sharing similar sentiments. Rescued partially by the opportunism of Dudu Omagbemi in Shillong, they are trying to stay positive. Their taciturn coach Khalid Jamil said as much. “Let us try for full points and then we will see. Their defence is very good so we will have to improve our conversion rate,” said Jamil who is one win and some favourable results away from being the only coach to win successive I-league titles.
That NEROCA are more rested — they last played on Feb 18 and lost 2-3 to Mohun Bagan at home — and have a better record away too could be why East Bengal didn’t seem to be in the best of moods. NEROCA began with a 1-2 loss to Minerva but have since got 17 points on the road including five wins.
Raikhan said the crowd at home is very demanding, like in Kolkata. They always want us to win and that created a lot of pressure, he said. But if the visitors, who have experienced professionals such as Govin Singh, Sushil Singh, Subhas Singh and Gouramangi Singh have trouble dealing with pressure, expect East Bengal to go for the jugular.
Jamil said they could make two or three changes to the line-up, possibly in the defence and the midfield.