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Unbeaten in nine games so far, Pune FC has become the talking point of the I-League. And as they ready themselves to take on state-rivals Air-India in a Round-16 away-cum-home game Derrick Pereira’s team faces the trial of playing without four regular first eleven players.
While Pune FC’s winning streak turns out to be an icing on the cake, the bitter reality will be stepping up of their bench strength in the afternoon game at the Shiv Chhatrapati sports Complex, Mhalunge-Balewadi on Sunday.
Pune FC goes into this return league game without defender Gurjinder Kumar and central midfielders Douhou Pierre, Baldeep Singh who will serve a one match suspension after receiving two cautions in two separate matches. Likewise, defender Anas Edathodika who was red carded in the last match sits out.
Coach Derrick is unnerved by this huge void. “To be frank we have enough quality on the bench and as I always say it is these opportunities for them (bench players) to up the ante,” he explains.
While the coach does not want to read much into this technical absence he does make it a point to imply, “our run so far does up expectations, which we would want to continue, but what remains utmost important is getting on and treating every match as a fresh start.”
Having to battle with consistency, Pune FC’s replacements for the suspended players in the 18-member squad include defender Rollingson Hyungyo, midfielder Maninder Singh, N Ganeshan apart from the return of striker and top-scorer Mandjou Keita.
Interesting, will be the midfield line-up where the choice is wide open with Karma Tsewang and Lester Fernandez displaying great form, which probably will mean picking two places from Arata Izumi, Paresh Shivalkar, Maninder and Shanugam Venkatesh.
Upfront the choice from Keita, Jeje Lalpekhlua and two-goal last match hero Subash Singh turns out to be force where any pair is capable of doing the job.
Fifth on the league, Pune FC (26 points) will certainly have their eye on full points hoping that they can cash in on the Mumbai side’s indifferent run over the past five games wherein their opponents have managed to get just four points. At Balewadi a loss and a draw makes up their report card.
With an early-evening kick off not turning out to be the usual start for Pune FC, Coach Derrick keeps away that factor by saying, “it’s no different as the climate is pleasant. Moreover, playing in the sun would help as we will be playing out next at about the same time.”
The two teams in the past had an equal share of success until the last game played in November 2011 had Pune FC edge ahead after scoring a 2-0 win. Sunday’s meeting would be the ninth between the two and barring two draws the games played so far have been full-point productive.
Going into this encounter, Pune FC have the distinction of beating their Mumbai rivals thirice this season. The first was in Pune (1-0) during the pre-season Peninsula Pune Cup and then in New Delhi (2-1) during the Durand Cup apart from the first-leg league game.
Aware that Salgaocar SC and Prayad are one-point adrift, Pune FC, for now as Coach Derrick put it, “We are not thinking about that now, just the match on hand.” A victory in the prevailing situation will be just the right result Pune FC will be hoping.
FORM RUN (Last 5 matches)
Pune FC (5th, 26 points): W-D-W-D-W
Air-India (9th, 20 points): L-D-L-L-W
HEAD-2-HEAD
24/11/11 I-L Pune FC 2-0 Air-India at Pune
13/10/11 DC Pune FC 2-1 Air India at New Delhi
04/03/11 I-L Pune FC 2-1 Air-India at Pune
03/01/11 I-L Air-India 0-0 Pune FC at Kolhapur
23/09/10 FEC Air-India 0-2 Pune FC at Cuttack
14/03/10 I-L Air-India 1-0 Pune FC at Mumbai
24/12/09 FEC Pune FC 1-1 Air-India at Guwahati
18/10/09 I-L Pune FC 0-1 Air India at Pune
30/08/09 IFA Air-India 2-1 Pune FC at Kolkata
