02 Dec 2020  |   03:53am IST

A BIT OFF THE BOIL

It has not been a great start for FC Goa. They have not won a match as yet. It is still early days in the season but a team that brought in new players and a new coach has not caught the imagination of its fervent fans. Café spoke to fans to gauge their reaction.

Yes, this is a dreadful start to a FC Goa season. But the team is giving its best with good performance from many players. It's always difficult to start afresh. Goa has almost a week to prepare for the next match. They will have to regroup, discuss all the problems, keep a calm mind and come up with creative ideas to tackle them. I'm sure they will bounce back. Teams have recovered from such losses in the past. Goa can do it. They will surely need to work on the final third. 

-Meblish Fernandes, FC Goa Fan Club, Sao Jose De Areal

FC Goa's start to the new season haven't been that great with just 2 points from the possible 9, drawing two and losing one. The whole squad is almost new, the coach and its staff are new so it's going to take time for them to adapt and the players to gel with each other. Juan is trying to find the right team combination. If you look at all the three games we've played pretty well, we have had our chances but it was tough luck. We have a few players who have already delivered like Igor, Brandon, Noguera, Ivan and Seriton. Now it's time for others to step up. It's going to take some time for sure but once we find the right balance and the right combination we'll definitely be on a winning run for sure. 

-Kunal Kunkolienkar, East Lower Army, Margao.

It will take a while for the personnel to adjust given the new players who are now part of the team. We can’t call it a dreadful start because it's just 3 games into the season with 17 more games to go. With 2 tough draws and 1 unfortunate loss, it looks like the new coach is still experimenting with many different combinations. If we start judging now then we are being critics and not fans. I'm optimistic that FC Goa is will do well and win matches. 

-Johnny Carvalho, Nagoa – Verna

I don't think it's a dreadful start to the season but yes certainly not up to the standards set previously. But we should understand it's a new set up and it will take time to get the understanding amongst the players. That said, I strongly believe FC Goa did not deserve to lose any of the matches they played so far. The refereeing hasn't helped our cause too. It's difficult to play attacking football right away with a new team which Goa has certainly done. NEUFC started very defensively in the last game.

It's great to see many youngsters making appearances in the first team and I believe things will get rosier pretty soon. We should give the Coach some time. 

-Omi, FC Goa Fan Club, Vasco

All the criticism is well warranted because its football and the fans are the boss but one should also realise that this is a very new setup and we should be realistic in our criticism. In all the games played by FC Goa they showed the intent to score even in the match against Mumbai which was lost in extra time. We just need that little bit of creativity and the final ball which I am sure will come in the coming days as we should also consider that we have had a very short pre-season. I am very sure there will be a turn around in results very soon. VamosGoa 

-Vivek Kudaskar, FC Goa Fan Club, Bicholim

The style of football that FC Goa is playing has been impressive. The only thing they need right now is to show more intent in attack. Maintaining possession is always good, but the team should try to produce something fruitful with that possession. Angulo should be brought more into the play so that more and more goal scoring chances are created. It’s high time for the players to show their hunger for scoring goals and gather the 3 points and get their hands on that ISL trophy and put up great performances in the AFC Champions League 

-Gaurang Shet Talaulikar, 

Ponda