Mumbai City cling on to hope as ATK look to salvage pride
KOLKATA: The voodoo dolls are out again, said Ashley Westwood, ATK’s interim coach who seems likely to see out the rest of the defending champions’ annus horribilis in the Indian Super League (ISL). Tom Thorpe, Westwood said, got injured at training on Saturday and could be doubtful for Sunday’s game against Mumbai City FC. With Robbie Keane, Zequinha and David Cotterill out, ATK could struggle to field five fit foreigners in their penultimate home game in ISL4. Again.
That has been one of the reasons why the league’s most consistent team has gone south in the standings and, for the first time in four years, are out of semi-final contention. “Can’t remember the last time we had five foreigners on the pitch and three on the bench,” said Westwood. It happened only once, against FC Goa here on January 3.
Mumbai City FC need to win here to keep alive slim chances of progressing to the knockouts. They have had a mid-season slump, having won one of their last six games, and though coach Alexandre Guimaraes said the team has performed well, he knows that alone won’t be enough to ensure semi-final berths in successive seasons.
The visitors are here after losing their last two rounds and that means their recent form is worse than ATK who came back twice against Kerala Blasters to end a run of four straight losses during which chief coach Teddy Sheringham was sacked. Also, Mumbai City FC are one of the three teams ATK have managed to beat this term. ATK have 13 points from 14 games and are eighth in the 10-team competition. Their opponents have 17 from 14 games and are seventh.
CHENNAIYIN PLAY JFC
CHENNAI: Chennaiyin FC take on Jamshedpur FC with an eye on a win and improve their chances of advancing to the play-offs.
With 27 points from 15 games, Chennaiyin are third in the table behind Bengaluru FC and FC Pune City. Jamshedpur, are currently fourth with 25 points.