HASC look to get their act together

The Bangalore team’s faithful will be hoping Dr Jekyll shows up when the Aircraftmen face-off against Chirag United SC in the I-League at the Sree Kanteerava stadium here on Sunday.

The task of taking three points, before they head into a three-week break, has been made harder with inspirational midfielder Xavier Vijay Kumar ruled out with a hamstring injury that he picked up in the match against Viva. “Xavier is out for three-four weeks,” M Muralidharan, HASC manager, said.  “He has a hamstring tear and he has been advised complete rest. But we are confident about tomorrow’s match. We know that the three points are extremely vital,” he added during the team’s training session on Saturday morning.

Xavier will be replaced by youngster Ankit Sharma, who has done well whenever he has been given a chance. The rest of the eleven is expected to be the same with goal shy A Hamza and RC Prakash starting again uprfront.

Finding the back of the net has been HASC’s problem all season, but the alarming fact about their last game against Viva was that they hardly created any chance. The midfielders, led by captain J Murali, will need to make sure that the strikers are not starved of chances, if they are to go into the mini-break with three points in the bag.
HASC currently lie in ninth position with 19 points from eighteen matches with Chirag four points ahead and two places above their opponents on 23 points, having played a game less.

Chirag, who beat HASC 1-0 in their home match, will be missing the services of ace striker Sunil Chhetri, who is out with an ankle problem, along with injured captain Arnab Mondal.
The Kolkata side will be spearheaded by the dangerous strike duo of Brazilian veteran Josimar Da Silva and Junior Elijah Obagbemiro. 

Chirag will look to the match on Sunday as a good opportunity to move further up the table. “We are confident of course. But HASC are also doing well even though they lost their last couple of matches. So anything is possible,” Sanjay Sen, Chirag coach, said.
DH News Service