It will be Mahindras efficiency vs Odafe brilliance

They have reached their second consecutive final — Federation Cup and Durand Cup — and will take on Churchill Brothers for a possible third Durand Cup title tomorrow at Dr Ambedkar Stadium.

But with only one goal in three matches, that too a penalty conversion, to beat Border Security Force in the last-16 stage, the Mumbai outfit has had to rely on their prowess in tie-breakers to make it to the title round.

Mahindras will also have a big hole in their so far watertight defence — they are yet to concede a goal in the tournament — as India international N P Pradeep has been ruled out with a hamstring injury while Gautam Debnath is yet to recover from a blow to his head sustained against Sporting Clube-de-Goa in the quarter finals.

“Losing Pradeep is a big setback for us as he is the main player for us in defence,” Derreck Pereira, the coach of Mahindra United, told The Indian Express on the sidelines of a training session.

Sunil Kumar and Dharmaraj Ravanan will man the back-line and would be in charge of the unenviable task of curbing the threat from Churchill Brother’s Nigerian hitman Odafe Onyeka Okolie, who has emerged as the top scorer in the tournament with 10 goals in just three matches.

“We play as 11 men and I will not put any extra emphasis on one player as it is a team game. But we do need to be careful about Okolie as he is in great form,” Pereira said.

However, he is more worried about his team’s lack of goals in the tournament and said the players have taken more time than expected to combine well as a unit.

“Since Yakubu returned, we have not played together much and it has taken time for him to combine with the India players. Yakubu has not got into his rhythm but the good thing is that he has been hitting the bars regularly, Hope he can find the net in the final,” he said.

Pereira refuted the notion that his team consciously plays for the penalty shootout. He said: “Every time we go on the field, we try to win. We don’t wait for the tie-breaker. In the last match also, we defended well. We just need to find the net now,” he added.

The Mumbai side still has a lot of talent in their armoury in form of players like Steven Dias, Krishnan Ajayan, Manjit Singh and custodians Sandip Nandy and Subhashish Roychowdhury — a strong enough line-up to fetch them a third Durand title.

In contrast, Churchill has been demolishing all opposition, riding on the goal-scoring prowess of their charismatic Nigerian striker Odafe Okolie. The Goan outfit brushed aside Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Central Railways but were severely tested by Air India in the semi-final where they had to come back from a deficit twice to prevail 3-2, with Odafe in the rescue act. The Nigerian’s explosiveness and dexterity upfront has been too much to handle for the opposing defences so far and it remains to be seen how Mahindras cope with the danger.

But there are a lot of weak links in the Goan defence, which were exposed by Air India in semi-finals. If Mario Soares’s side want to win their maiden title at the third oldest tournament in the world, they will have to play out of their skins. “We played badly against Air India, and Mahindras is a very tough opponent. It’s going to be a tough job to breach their defence but I am putting my money on Odafe and Iyomi to do that for us. Besides that there are no worries in our ranks we are confident and raring to go,” said Soares.