Mohammedan Sporting will be looking to pick up its first points in the Indian Super League (ISL) 2024-25 campaign when it hosts former league shield winner FC Goa at the Kishore Bharati Stadium here on Saturday.
Having lost its debut outing by a lone goal scored by NorthEast United FC FC in injury time at the same venue, Mohammedan will be looking to regroup and bring out a better showing against a challenging opponent.
“We need to improve in defensive situations, as well as in attacking ones. We try to change some situations and be better in the next match. Different players adapt differently to circumstances — some take less time and some more than that,” Mohammedan Russian head coach Andrey Chernyshov said ahead of the FC Goa challenge.
Goa will also be keen to secure its first win after losing its opening match at home (1-2 against Jamshedpur FC) through an injury-time goal. Against the Black Panthers, the Gaurs will be looking at its recent good results in Kolkata for inspiration. As the statistics indicate, FC Goa has been dominating the Kolkata-based teams (East Bengal and Mohun Bagan SG) in recent times, winning four out of its last five meetings. The only match it lost was against Mohun Bagan in the previous ISL season.
“As we see in the training, the hunger among the players to respond to the defeat in the first game is there. But you cannot promise results. You can only promise that the players will work hard to achieve them. And I feel that on Saturday against Mohammedan SC, they will work hard,” said Goa head coach Manolo Marquez.
Marquez, who has the additional responsibility of managing the senior men’s Indian team, is quite aware of FC Goa’s record of being the most prolific side in ISL history. As it stands, FC Goa is three goals shy (347) of becoming the first ISL team to score 350 goals. It has scored 124 of these goals in ‘away’ venues, which is also an ISL record. Mumbai City FC, with 115 goals, stands second.
