ISL - INDIAN SUPER LEAGUE - NEWS

Indian Super League - Santosh Kashyap: 'NorthEast United 

want to win the ISL'

The Indian assistant coach at the NorthEast franchise opined that his squad has the ideal mix of youth and experience ahead of the ISL...

Santosh Kashyap, the coach of I-League side Royal Wahingdoh, is on cloud nine after being conferred the prestigious Coach of The Year (CoTY) award at the Football Players Association of India's (FPAI) Indian Football Awards in Kolkata, on September 27th, 2015.

Kashyap masterminded the Royals' third place finish in the league last year, a feat that took all by storm considering the team punched well above their weight after many wrote them off as simply being relegation contenders. However, stellar performances from them against Bengaluru FC and eventual champions Mohun Bagan, not only earned them plaudits, but also a firm fan following throughout the country, with showers of praise heaped on Kashyap's shoulders. 

His spectacular campaign saw him land the assistant coach's job at NorthEast United, the Indian Super League (ISL) representatives of all eight states in the northeast of India, a challenge he is already yearning to accompish with the ISL trophy at the end of the season. 

"Definitely we would like to win the tournament. The team is in good shape and we have had an excellent pre-season in South Africa," revealed Kashyap, as he spoke after receiving the accolade on the season ahead with the John Abraham owned team.

Quizzed on the fledgling nature of his squad and if it will be a weakness, the former Rangdajied United gaffer opined,  "No, it is always a positive as it is a crunch league, I believe. It makes a case when you recover quickly in between games with three-to-four days in hand. It is about a team performance, where we have good mix of youth and experience. So we hope for the best."

Finally, questioned on the importance of foreign signing Silas who is in fact 39 years of age, the  experienced Indian gaffer replied, "See him on the ground, you will come to know he is in excellent shape, don't go by his age. In fact he is one of the most fittest in the team and of course he carries truckloads of experience."

NorthEast United begin their ISL campaign away from home, in the parish of the Kerala Blasters, at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, Cochin on October 6th, 2015.

Indian Super League - Helder Postiga: 'I am confident that 

we can be ISL champions again'

The marquee of the ISL's Kolkata franchise revealed he is impressed with the local talent, whilst coach claims ATK need to lead the way..

Fresh from a month long pre-season in Spain, the defending champions of the Indian Super League (ISL), Atletico de Kolkata, landed on Indian soil on Thursday morning, 24th September. The marquee signing this season, Portuguese forward Helder Postiga was presented by team officials in front of the media for the first time in a hotel, Kolkata.

The franchise owners revealed the FC Porto youth academy player would wear the coveted number nine jersey this season. Postiga, who looked forward to a new challenge in the form of the Indian Super League (ISL) said, “It is an honour to play for Atletico (de Kolkata). I hope I can share my experiences with the Indian players.”

“Luis Garcia did an amazing job last season and it will be difficult to emulate that, but I am confident that we can be champions again. I am also impressed with the local talent and look forward to partnering Iain Hume in the final third,” expressed Postiga on his new club-mates and ambitions for the upcoming season."

Last season’s victorious coach, Antonio Lopez Habas also returns for the season edition of the ISL. Confirming the solution to the unavailability of a practice ground Habas said, “We will use the Mohun Bagan ground for now and 8th October onwards we will be based in the Salt Lake Stadium.”

The Atletico gaffer was impressed by the pre-season form of the team, praising the Indian players’ commitment. He stressed on team play suggesting all eleven players on the pitch would be crucial rather than focusing on one particular star in the team.

“Let us not compare seasons; we want to take it game by game and first objective is to reach the play-offs”, the Spaniard said. “We want to be a protagonist team and lead the way in the league”, a confident Habas revealed.

The inaugural champions kick start their season two campaign against Chennaiyin FC in an away match at the Marina Arena on the 3rd of October.

Indian Super League - Materazzi: 'Mourinho the manager I 

learnt most from'

Materazzi was speaking at the official team unveiling and believes the Indian players in his team are as good as foreign ones, opines fans are their biggest strength...

Marco Materazzi, the 2006 World Cup winner and Inter Milan icon, is enjoying his stint as a manager for Chennaiyin FC, the Tamil Nadu representatives in the Indian Super League (ISL). The Abhishek Bachchan co-owned team were semi-finalists in the competition last year, but crashed out at the hands of south Indian rivals Kerala Blasters on aggregate, in a tightly contested couple of ties.

Materazzi is back in India with a refurbished Chennaiyin side and mow believes his sides can go the full distance, blaming injuries to key players last year for their semi-final hiccup. He also believes India's talent, at his disposal, belies the national team's ranking on the FIFA charts. The Italian coach was speaking at the official unveiling of the Chennaiyin FC squad, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Chennai, on September 27th.

The mood was jubilant, the smiles were wide and all the players were raring to go come the new season. 

"We have a very great team. We have top players like Elano, Mendy, Mendoza, Fikru, and many more. We retained the best. We brought more good players in. We have the task of adding more flavour and getting the group together," replied a clearly buoyant Materazzi, on how he saw his team's dynamic taking shape ahead of the new ISL season, considering the quality of players added. 

Speaking about preparations, the Chennaiyin FC team spent time in Perugia, Italy, with Materazzi outlaying his blue-print for success this coming season.  

"Last year, I was not skeptical. We were the last team (to assemble), so it was a bit of a surprise for us. But we still trained well before the season last year. This year everything was more organized, we had more time. In football not always the best team wins. But we have done everything, we’re well prepared. We are better than last year and we’re ready to show it on the pitch," revealed the 42-year-old former Perugia central defender.

Prodded further on how he attacked pre-season and what areas he specifically targeted, the coach paid special focus to avoiding injuries. "We had a chance to train in Perugia for month, to have two sessions a day, which wouldn’t have been possible in Chennai due to the weather. Mostly, we tried to avoid injuries like last year. We cannot guarantee 100 per cent that we’ll have no injuries, because we play game every three days, but we try our best to avoid injuries," Materazzi stated.

The multi-time Scudetto champion as well as Champions League winner, elucidated on his biggest managerial inspirations, "Jose Mourinho. I have worked with a lot of coaches in my life and have learnt something new from everyone. But the most impact I have had was from Mourinho and [Marcelo] Lippi. It is not easy to be a coach."

"Last year I was very dependent on Elano. But he got injured. So that was great loss for us. (There were) many, many factors, so I like to keep the players together. This year the group has come together more than last time," he further added, on player importance. 

Materazzi believes the home pitch is perfect for his liking, but the main aspect of playing in Chennai was the fans, especially as the team had roped in a local talent in Dhanpal Ganesh amongst their ranks. 

"I really like the pitch. It is good to have a good home pitch. Also I’m looking forward to our new training ground. Last year the fan following was great. Having a local player is great, but whatever the case may be I believe the Chennai fans will cheer us on again this season. Most of Chennaiyin’s good moments have come thanks to the fans."

Finally, the defender clarified by stating India has a lot more to offer on the football pitch than widely perceived as he answered back to a question regarding the ISL's ability to match the Serie A in terms of quality.

"We have very good players here like Thoi (Singh), (Harmanjot) Khabra, Balwant (SIngh), Jeje (Lalpekhlua) and Jayesh (Rane). We have to learn from our experiences every year. But first of all, we have to start from the academies, make new players learn from the beginning. I find it surprising that India is at 174th (actually 155th) in FIFA rankings even though we have 1.3 billion people. We have great players like Khabra, Thoi, Balwant, Jeje, Jayesh who are nothing less than the European players," he concluded.