Match 3 of the Indian Soccer League promises to be a thrilling encounter as Jamshedpur FC take on the newly formed Odisha FC at the JRD Tata Sports Complex tonight at 7:30 pm. Both teams have managers who like their teams to play an attacking brand of football while keeping the ball.
Jamshedpur FC has gone through two different philosophies in the last two seasons. They have narrowly missed out on playoffs finishing 5th in each of the last 2 seasons & will be hoping to turn that this time around. They are coached by Spaniard Antonio Iriondo who likes to attack. “We will try to defend when they attack us. But our goal is we would love to have the ball more in 90 minutes than our opposition. For us, the most important thing is to make our fans happy with our style of play,” said Iriondo.
Jamshedpur has replaced outgoing players with a few exciting arrivals like Francisco Luna & Noe Acosta. While star players like Memo & Tiri have been retained. However, the biggest boost comes in the form of CK Vineet who has joined the club from Kerala Blasters. He remains the third-highest Indian goal scorer in the league.
Delhi Dynamos have rebranded to moved their base to Odisha this season. Their coach once again is Josep Gombau & the squad also largely remains the same. Although they finished at the bottom last season, there was some excitement about the way their young squad played at times. “Last season is over. Now we start a journey to a new club in a new city. A lot of players are the same and I think we have a good squad. All the signings are done to improve the squad and I think we have a complete team,” Gombau said.
There is an interesting Spanish flavor to this clash. Not only the two managers but both squads too have many Spanish players. And with both camps talking about an attacking style of play, we should be getting to see a tantalizing display of the beautiful game.
Predicted Lineups:
Jamshedpur FC: Subrata Pal (GK), Narender Gehlot, Jitendra Singh, Tiri, Bikash Jairu, Memo, Aitor Monroy, Isaac Vanmalsawma, CK Vineeth, Sergio Castel, Piti
Odisha FC: Francisco Dorronsoro (GK), Shubham Sarangi, Narayan Das, Carlos Delgado, Gaurav Bora, Diawandou Diagne, Vinit Rai, Xisco Hernandez, Nandakumar Sekar, Jerry Mawihmingthanga, Aridane Santana
SportsGuru Prediction:
Jamshedpur 1-0 Odisha. We think the home team is slightly better placed & will just nick this one.
