MATCH PREVIEW: In ATK and Goa we have two ready title contenders playing coy

RIDING ON THE HIGH of crucial wins in their season opening fixtures, FC Goa and Atletico de Kolkata take on each other at the Fatorda Stadium tonight. 

FC Goa, who played their season opener against Delhi Dynamos at home, won convincingly by a 2-0 margin. Atletico de Kolkata, who played Chennaiyin FC, put up a fight away from home and took advantage of a few defensive errors from the home team to snatch a 3-2 win. 

ATK coach Antonio Habas will be confident after the way his boys stood up to the test on Saturday. But yesterday he received a blow when news emerged that his marquee player Helder Postiga would be out for 3-4 weeks due to the injury he picked up during the opening match against Chennaiyin FC. Losing the team's highest scorer this early into the tournament for such a long period does not bode well for the defending champions, but they do have the depth to soldier on. 

Other injured players in the camp, including Tiri, Jewel Raja and captain Josemi, will remain unavailable.

They will also miss defender Arnab Mondal who put in a good shift for Atletico de Kolkata in the opening match. (An alleged hand-ball he committed awarded Chennaiyin FC a penalty but the re-play suggests the ball had hit his thigh). He has been selected to be a part of the Indian national team for the World Cup Qualifier matches against Turkmenistan and Oman. Rino Anto, another defender, will also join him on national duty. 

To replace them there's a good chance that Habas will move Augustin Fernandez, who is a centre back but played on the left last time, to his natural position and play Nalappan Mohanraj on the left. Joining him as the other central defender could be Goa's local boy Denzil Franco. In the absence of Postiga, Iain Hume could be made the new target man up front while Valdo, who came on as a substitute and scored a goal last time, could be rewarded a start as an attacking medio playing ahead of Jaime Gavilan and Borja Fernandez.

A couple of FC Goa players will also be out on national duty -- defender Narayan Das and medio Pronay Halder. But they left before FC Goa's first game against Delhi Dynamos so Zico has the advantage of not having to shuffle the team to make up for their absence.

The two injuries plaguing the FC Goa camp, that of Bikramjit Singh and Victor Samoes, did not seem to affect them as they marched to a convincing victory in their season opener. The team coordination looked good, defence let players slip a couple of times, but in the end walked away with a clean sheet. Romeo Fernandes was sensational. Winger Dessai and forward Reinaldo got to score. The substitutes they took were last minute ones aimed at running out the clock.

There's a chance Zico will leave his starting line-up unchanged for the second match of the season.

But although the FC Goa camp is relaxed and comfortable in their skin at the moment, they are cautious not to be over-confident. At the pre-match press conference, Zico refused to make premature assumptions about the game,

“At the moment it’s hard to pick a favourite, both teams are on top. Though I can say there is a lot of motivation to win every game. We want to be in the final.”  

It's not surprising to hear Zico speaking of being in the final right before playing ATK. Last year, it was the very same team that defeated FC Goa in the semi-finals by penalty shootout after two hard-fought home-away encounters found them even.

ATK coach Antonio Habas, too, wasn't going to make any comments about what could happen in the match. All he said was, 

"Goa are very similar to last year. But that doesn’t matter. In a game of 90 minutes, anything is possible.”

Tonight another large turnout is expected at the Fatorda Stadium as the highly anticipated clash between two sides perceived as title contenders goes down. Newcomer Leo Moura, who debuted for FC Goa on Sunday, is mighty impressed with the atmosphere at the home ground,

“The atmosphere in the stadium was like Brazil. Spoke to my friend Andre Santos and he gave me an idea of the league. It feels like home here.”

That the 'Samba Spine' of the FC Goa team are making themselves at home in Margao is good news, because after Atletico de Kolkata they will face Chennaiyin FC in the next round at this very ground before moving out for a few away games. They will want to have maximum points in their pockets before the fatigue of travel and playing in new conditions inevitably hits the team.

Atletico de Kolkata, on the other hand, will want to win tonight's game at any cost, so that they can go back to Kolkata for their first home match against Kerala Blasters with two crucial away victories already in their pocket, along with the confidence boost that comes with such promising start to their ISL campaign.  

Probable Starting Line-Ups:

FC Goa: Elinton Andrade (GK), Lucio, Gregory Arnolin, Keenan Almeida, Debabrata Roy, Leo Moura, Denson Devadas, Mandar Rao Desai, Romeo Fernandes, Jofre, Reinaldo.

Atletico de Kolkata: Atletico de Kolkata: Amrinder Singh (GK), Nalappan Mohanraj, Augustin Fernandes, Denzil Franco, Javi Lara, Jaime Gavilan, Borja Fernandez, Oftense Nato, Valdo, Baljit Singh Sahni, Iain Hume.