AGENCIES
SHILLONG
The only Goan club in the I-League 2017-18, Churchill Brothers will open their campaign against Shillong Lajong here on Saturday at 5.30pm. The match will be telecast live on Star Sports2. The Varca-based club will be up against the home side, who have already started the league campaign with a victory over new-entrants Gokulam Kerala FC.
With a major challenge of acclimatising to the weather in Shillong and also being a squad rebuilt almost from the scratch that means another sort of a challenge to get the boys well-gelled, newly-appointed Ukrainian coach Mykola Shevchenko will be under huge pressure in the opener while Goa will be hoping that their representatives make a good start.
"It is as if we came into winter from summer," said Shevchenko, who was formerly a player with Churchill Bros. He was guarded about giving any hint into his strategy. "We haven't had too much time to prepare as the foreigners arrived late, but with the Indian players the preparation has been good. It is a fresh team and we will get better game by game," he added.
Churchill Brothers finished 6th behind Lajong last season and were defeated 1-0 in this fixture when they visited Shillong back in February.
Churchill Brothers had signed new foreign players in time for the fresh season, but they faced problems in acquiring visa for them, hence these players were delayed to arrive for the pre-season training. The Nigerian trio comprises defender Osagie, midfielder Peter Omoduemuke and striker Eric Nwaimo. Churchill have also roped in Emuejeraye Precious from Singapore and brought in Vietnamese midfielder, Dinh Van Ta.
Meanwhile, after kicking off with a meticulous win in the first match of the I-League, onus is on the Reds to carry on their winning spree at their home ground. Shillong Lajong assistant coach Alison did not seem to be very happy with the performance of the boys because according to him, they played what might be called "good football" but not "attractive football".
"For the next match, I expect my boys to play better and focus more on attacking," said Alison. He also said that his boys have gained more confidence after the first win and have been training hard to make it two in two in their opening two home fixtures. "After the win on Monday, the boys have gained more confidence. But now our main focus is the next match against Churchill. The boys have recovered well from the first match and we have been training hard. We are ready for our second home match," he added.
