Mumbai: “The weather here in India is good for football. But I’m saying that as a coach, not too sure whether the players feel the same,” said Mumbai City FC coach Peter Reid, on the eve of their home tie against FC Pune City at the DY Patil Stadium here.
Reid looked a relaxed man on Friday and was jovial with his players too. Why? Fredrik Ljungberg trained with the team for the first time and is likely to join the squad for Saturday’s match.
“It was good to see him run. He has not complained of any reaction in his calf yet. We will check with him one final time tomorrow morning and take a call,” said Reid.
With captain Syed Rahim Nabi out for three weeks, Nicolas Anelka not being available, Ljungberg’s participation in the practice session is good news for the hosts, who looked toothless in the opener against Atletico De Kolkata last week.
In the meanwhile, it will be also interesting to see who replaces Nabi.
Despite Mumbai’s lackluster show against Kolkata, Reid thought it was a good game. “It was the first match, they had home advantage. We made some errors but then at the end of the day, I feel it was a good game of football,” said the 58-year-old.
“We need to pass better to win games,” he added.
Manuel Frederich, the centre back for Mumbai and one of the first players to join the team, said: “You need at least three weeks to get acclimatized after coming out of Europe. Now we have home fans to cheer for us which is going to make a difference.”
FC Pune City on the other hand, believe they are now a better unit after drawing their opening game against Delhi Dynamos. Their coach Franco Colomba said, “The match with Delhi was difficult. They were technically correct in many areas. Since they were a good opponent, a draw against them seemed fine to me.”
Pune’s marquee player, David Trezeguet said: “We defended well but lacked something upfront. The important part is that the team understood where they went wrong.”
The Pune players are not likely to make any changes to their squad for all their players are doing well, according to Colomba.
DY Patil Stadium as venue:
“Though it is a cricket stadium, it is a fantastic pitch to play football. It is always good to see the players tackle on grass,” said Reid.
The stadium authorities said that it was easy for them to convert the ground into a football turf because not many cricket matches were played here in the recent past.
The Indian Super League flags all around have made the otherwise outskirt colourful.
