PANJIM: For FC Goa fans many imagined the worst scenario for their team following their abysmal mid-season performance that saw their chances of qualifying to the knock-outs fade away with every passing game. The Gaurs dropped from top four to mid-table.
The poor shot-stopping and lacklustre defence neutralised FC Goa’s strong attack. The change was inevitable for the man in goal.
That’s when Coach Sergio Lobera took the gloves away from Captain Laxmikanth Kattimani and handed over it to Naveen Kumar.
With the change, the team looked more confident and even managed to keep a clean sheet. However, FC Goa’s Naveen was humble enough to credit the collective team effort for the turnaround.
“It’s not because of me but because of the collective team effort that we are high on confidence,” said Naveen, who managed to earn FC Goa’s first clean sheet of the season against FC Pune City.
The former Churchill Brothers FC keeper added, “The coach thought of making some changes as we weren’t at our best in the last few games. We lost and drew some matches.”
Naveen made his ISL debut against Bengaluru FC, unfortunately the lad was at the receiving end where his team lost 0-2.
“I was always ready and excited of playing. There was no much pressure on me,” said Naveen.
FC Goa have been the highest goal-scoring team in the league so far wherein they scored a mammoth 39 goals already. However, they had failed miserably in defence wherein they conceded ‘too many’ goals as well.
“We badly needed a cleansheet to build our defence’s morale and we earned it in the last match against FC Pune City, which definitely motivated us. All the defenders are giving their best and it’s been a good collective team performance lately that has got us positive results,” explained Naveen.
FC Goa missed their regulars –Mohammed Ali, Brandon Fernandes, Bruno Pinhero – against ATK, who were sidelined with injuries. However, their replacements left no stones unturned and took the opportunity to prove their mettle as they displayed a good brand of football.
“This shows our strength. We have very good players on the bench. During the training sessions, every player strives hard to get an opportunity to showcase it on the pitch. The same was witnessed in the match against ATK,” revealed Naveen.
Kumar quipped that the strikers ease off the pressure from the defence and said, “when the strikers score goals, it makes our work simpler. It builds our confidence more than 50 per cent, which is almost half of the job done.”
FC Goa will play their final league match against Jamshedpur FC on Sunday. With both the teams eyeing for the semi-finals berth, the Gaurs need just a point to move ahead.
“Now we have just one league match left, which is equivalent to a final. We will play and give our best. Our fans have been awesome and they support us well. I feel we will win against Jamshedpur FC,” he concluded.
