The two sides that have experienced a recent run of form will go head-to-head as they battle to ensure their survival.
The international break ends and the fixture that recommences the I-League features Salgaocar FC hosting DSK Shivajians, at the Tilak Maidan, on Friday.
Neither of the two had significant amount of players from their squads away during the break with the exception of Sandesh Jhingan and Subrata Paul from DSK and the trio of Seityasen Singh, Karanjit Singh and Augustin Fernandes from Salgaocar FC. The rest of the squad would have had adequate rest with enough time to recover from minor niggles.
Salgoacar have a clean bill of health ahead of the game with the exception of Reagen Singh who is out with a long term injury. Darryl Duffy is expected to be back after being out for a couple of games, while the inclusion of Augustin Fernandes who was away with the Indian national team, will be a last minute decision, confirmed Santosh Kashyap.
The Greens head into the fixture on the back of a 1-0 win against Shillong Lajong. Gilbert Oliviera scored the only goal of the game and shut out a toothless Lajong attack. The result lifted Salgaocar FC to fifth place in the table and quite literally out of the danger zone. Friday’s encounter over DSK however, offers a chance to leapfrog rivals Sporting Clube de Goa and occupy fourth place.
Kashyap highlighted the importance of this fixture by pointing to the congestion in the bottom half of the table.
“It is a very important game after Aizawl beat Mohun Bagan. All the sides are close to each other in the lower side of the table. Matches with teams in the same situation are very important according to me. DSK are high on morale and we’ve done well in our last few games as well. The squad is back, we’ve had time to work on ourselves and we’re confident of getting three points,” he said at the pre-match press conference.
The former Bagan coach has used a number of formations and they have worked most of the time. Salgaocar have scored six goals in their last three games and conceded just thrice - proof of Kashyap’s methodology coming to fruition.
It won’t be a walk in the park by any means for the Goan side who will be up against a reinvigorated DSK Shivajians. The Pune based side have finally clicked as a unit.
DSK travel to Goa on the back of a 3-1 result against the other I-League side in the state, Sporting Clube de Goa. A first half blitzkrieg from the home side saw Aser Dipanda open the scoring and Douhou Pierre score a well taken brace. Sporting had pretty much no answer to DSK’s tactics.
Derrick Pereira will make a return to familiar surroundings, where he spent a significant amount of time, coaching the Greens. He will have just a few finite points to convey to his side, considering their impeccable couple of results in recent weeks. Five goals scored in the last two games and just two conceded is a stat that points to their turn of form.
Arguably, DSK’s biggest asset is the attacking trio of Aser Dipanda, Douhou Pierre and Quero. The threesome have been involved in the majority of their goals and will be a threat for Salgaocar to deal with. Quero links up well with Dipanda to stretch defences while Douhou is the one who initiates attacks and often finishes moves off. The medio makes his return to a ground he knows particularly well, having spent two seasons at Salgaocar.
“I expect a tough challenge from Salgaocar. Every match is tough for us and playing at 4:30 is another challenge. I would always prefer to be playing under the floodlights, which helps players play good attacking football and give the crowd a reason to cheer. But we are preparing ourselves to play at 4:30,” Derrick Periera stated.
DSK also have no players injured with the exception of Justin Stephen, who injured his ankle in training on Wednesday.
Two sides which have been in the bottom half of the table seem to have found a spark and will go hammer and tongs against each another in a game that could prove to be crucial come the end of the season.
Kick off at 1630 IST.