I-League: Dempo SC keen to do well

PANAJI: Mohun Bagan and Dempo SC went through their drills on eve of match day in the morning and evening respectively. Both coaches, Karim Bencherifa and Arthur Papas, know they have more than a battle on hand.
Their present positions in the I-League standings (7th and 11th respectively), ahead of their 7th round clash at the Duler Stadium on Friday, does not augur well for both former national champions.
While Dempo s form has fluctuated like a pendulum from mediocrity to brilliance, Bagan continue to be without the mercurial Nigerian striker Odafa Okolie, out with a thigh injury. So also Wahid Sali, Shankar Oran, Eric Muranda and now, Katsumi Yusa (food poisoning). "A final call on the last two will be taken in the morning," said Karim.
"Let me remind you that we are a very young side and had four u-23 players in the last match. This time too, we will have a handful on the bench and in the first eleven," he added.
Whether Karim throws some young blood into the thick of action will be known only on the morrow.
The same is the case with Dempo. Papas team needs to shore up its defence which has often crumbled under pressure. Also, goalkeeper Subhashish Roy Chowdhury must reduce silly errors, stand up and make himself be counted.
The strike pair of Billy Mehmet and Jeje Lalpekhlua also need to step upto the plate and improve their scoring percentage to a respectable level. Both players have just three goals among them from six games.
Friday could be the day when Jeje comes good and hopefully Mehmet too. If the midfield, led by Brazilian Roberto Mendis Silva, pull their weight together and the defence stonewall Bagan's advances, then there is no reason why Dempo cannot pull off a win like they did against East Bengal at the Kalyani Municipal stadium.
"Collectively we have not defended at the level that is required. We have not been able to replicate the level we showed against East Bengal and that is the biggest concern for which we are all working hard to rectify.
"I expect Bagan to come out and place a high line of pressure early in the game and therefore we need to be able to play the match at a higher intensity than we played our previous game," pointed out Papas.
"This is an important match and we want to prove that we can raise our game to the level we did against East Bengal and it was not a one-off case. We have the talent and quality and can repeat that performance if we manage to pull our efforts together as a team," said Beto.