ISL 2017: Coppell defends caretakers on the inferior quality pitch
THE FANS WERE EXCITED for the first home game of the newest Indian Super League yesterday. Some 23,000 odd spectators gathered to support and cheer the team.
Little did anyone expect that the very pitch itself would mar the quality of football played. The loose carpet of grass in some places of the ground looked under prepared and had uneven grass. Then there were other places where chunks of grass along with the layer beneath would come off after kicks taken in that area.
Teddy Sheringham, coach of ATK, complained about it, pointing the cameras to pan and see the areas that looked horrible. In such a situation where the pitch is less than ideal, along with players being cautious in passing and running, there exists a big risk of injuries. And that’s exactly wat Teddy pointed out in the post-match press conference.
“You could get bad injuries on that (pitch). You saw our goalkeeper coming out in the last two minutes to the edge of the box and his legs kind of buckled underneath him. We are lucky that we haven’t got more than one injury.”
Sheringham went on to say,
“The pitch didn’t help the game for either team tonight. It was a tough spectacle and is not one of the games you put in the archive. But when you look at the players, you see their commitment, 22 players working hard on a pitch like that. You have to commend all 22 really.”
But the Jamshedpur FC coach, Coppell refuse to lay blame on the pitch care-takers and said,
“It’s difficult you know, because of the surface. I thought we had a strong claim for a penalty in the first minute and from there, you have to create chances. It was difficult to run with the ball, it was difficult to pass the ball with confidence. That surely affected the game. In a way, you can admire both the teams for their commitment in the way they went about their job. I hope the next time we play here, we have a far firmer surface than the one we had today,”
He went to clarify that there should be some amendments done and can expect a better pitch in the next home game,
“The pitch is beautiful. So many people within Jamshedpur have worked so hard for months to create a pitch and to create a stadium to hold an ISL game. And obviously, the pitch doesn’t live up to the billing, it’s a work in progress like so many things in the team, in Jamshedpur, the environment, it’s a work in progress,”
Coppell said he should have used veteran striker Ashim Biswas in yesterady’s game but he did not fit in his plans for the game. Commenting on his decision to not use striker Ashim Biswas, Coppell added:
“He’s not played because he’s a striker. If you see my team, we have a lot of strikers. We have seven international players, it is a difficult position for him to break into. We tried to get him desperately on the pitch today, but I just felt we needed the power of a Trindade (Goncalves) and to be honest it didn’t really work. Maybe I should have put Ashim on.”
Inputs from ISL website
