A-I hold upper hand

NAGPUR, July 31: For Air-India there is no problem except one, when they meet Sporting Union, Bhopal, in the opener of Kalyani Black Labe...

NAGPUR, July 31: For Air-India there is no problem except one, when they meet Sporting Union, Bhopal, in the opener of Kalyani Black Label Federation Cup West Zone football tournament here at Yeshwant Stadium tomorrow. The favourites know nothing about their debutante opponents from Madhya Pradesh.

The manager and coach Bimal Ghosh, who sounded confident about airmen8217;s good performance said, quot;We haven8217;t played against Sporting Union ever before. That8217;s the main concern for us. On the other hand, most of the participants 8212; including our opponents tomorrow know something about our players.quot;

The lack of know-how may hamper A-I8217;s strategy for the opener, added Ghosh saying his team would adopt an attacking game-plan and try to score an early goal to check the Sporting Union. quot;My players can adjust to any given situation as they are a highly experienced and mature side,quot; said the last year8217;s quot;best coachquot;.

Sporting Union manager Asimkumar Roy said they have nothing to lose tomorrow. quot;Even if we lose thematch, we going to gain experience of playing against one of the top national teams for the first time,quot; the self-assured manager of Bhopal and MP Club league champions remarked.

He said they are the underdogs and have no tension. quot;In fact, Air-India could play under pressure as we are a totally new team for them. We will try to exploit their weakness.quot; The team managements neither spoke about any player nor give a hint about their game-plan.

THE TEAMS

Sporting Union, Bhopal: Siju Kuriel and Brotin Bannerjee both 8216;keepers, Milan Dey, S Roychaudhari, Jasbir Singh, Shakeel Akhtar, Sachin Gurung, Mohd Rais, SP Nigam all defenders, Mohan Singh Bist, Ojit Singh, Shanker Basumatari, Rahmat Baig, Jes Martin, J Sarkar all mid-fielders, Pawan Katiyal, Rana Sen, Praveen Nair, Farooq Daad, Christian Earnest, Scaria Verghees all forwards. Coach: Shibu Jacob, Asst coach: Arun, Manager: Asim Kumar Roy and Asst manager: Satish Malakar.

Air-India: Yousuf Ansari andShaym Sawant both 8216;keepers, Henry Picardo, Ajay Acharya, Radhkrishna Dubey, Sandeep Kharat, Subir Sinha, Kuntal Chakraborty all defenders, Khambitan Singh capt, Dennis George, Taposh Ghosh, Ratan Singh, Khogen Singh, Khalid Jameel, Surjeet Tigga all mid-fielders, Godfrey Perreira, Anthony Fernandez, Abbas Ali Rizwi, Nitin Shetty, Malvin Vaz, Osberan D8217;Souza and Nagesh Swamy all forwards. Manager/coach: Bimal Ghosh. Asst manager/coach: Santan D8217;Souza.