After a sedate start, they gathered momentum, survived a few anxious moments and eventually finished a credible seventh in the ONGC Cup.
MUMBAI: If Mahindra United had an excellent season, their city rivals, Air India, too didn’t disappoint. After a sedate start, they gathered momentum, survived a few anxious moments and eventually finished a credible seventh in the recently concluded ONGC Cup 10th National Football League (NFL).
The fledgling outfit, marred by frequent injuries, still managed to produce good football and keep their top-flight status intact. And if there’s one person who can be credited with the team’s success, it has to be their coach. Bimal Ghosh, voted as the best NFL coach in the 1997-98 season, marshalled his limited resources as only he can and managed to get the best possible result.
In an interview to DNA, Bimal Da, as he is known in the fraternity, spoke about the season gone by, the season ahead, home advantage and, of course, his team’s success quotient against Mahindra. Excerpts:
On his team’s performance: At the start of the season, we were a second division team with not much experience. We had just hoped to stave off relegation. But we started off well, winning the Nadkarni Cup and then the Mumbai League. Home turf has always been an advantage for us and we did considerably well.
We started slowly but I always knew Mohammedan Sporting was bad and Salgaocar were inconsistent. But we could have won some matches (like the ones against Mohd Sporting and East Bengal) which we didn’t. That probably cost us a place in the top six. Nevertheless, I’m satisfied.
On the boys: Paresh Shivalkar, Vijith Shetty, Nepoleon Singh and Hringsolal Thomte did particularly well for us. Though Benoy Kuruvilla was suffering from jaundice, he did well whenever he played. But he did have goalkeeping problems with the exception of Raju Ekka. This season, the players were inexperienced and yet did well. Next season, they will do better with experience.
Against Mahindra... we win: We have won four times and lost only once against them this season. Our team has always shown a lot of courage when we play them and now, we believe we can beat them at any ground. Mahindra is a big team but they can be beaten tactically, as they proved in the recent Super Cup tie against East Bengal. They went for an all-out attack, failing to read the East Bengal strategy. Sometimes defence is the best strategy as has been proved repeatedly by the Italians and the Germans, and more recently by Greece in Euro 2004. I believe next year we’ll have the same results against them.
Next up? I won’t say we’ll come first but we’ll definitely try to finish in the top three. We’re trying to sign few more players and our financial situation is a little better this season as compared to the last season. We’ll also try not to lose any of our home games and we’ll not let Mahindra win the Mumbai League.
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