Dynamos combat Delhi pollution with masks

Be it the under-17 World Cup or the Indian Super League (ISL), the Delhi air continues to be part of the conversation on football at this time of the year. The World Cup scheduled no matches after Diwali in Delhi but the ISL can’t afford such luxury in a competition that runs for four months beginning on November 17.

So, Delhi Dynamos’ players have been given protective masks with which goalie Albino Gomes said they have trained. “Things are better now,” said Gomes here on Sunday. Gomes won the I-League with Aizawl FC, a city almost in the clouds, and said in jest that playing in fog shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Speaking on the same subject, Dynamos’ Spanish defender Eduardo Moya, 36, though said the adjustment is all in the mind. “It’s all about having a good mentality. I know the weather conditions would be different in, say, Delhi and Kochi but why should that affect the standard of football? As a player, you need to adapt to these things and that includes the pollution in Delhi,” he said.

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