Earning berth in AFC quarters helped tide over NFL disappointment

Mumbai, May 25 (UNI) Mahindra United coach Derrick Pereira believes that earning a berth in the Asian Football Confederation Cup (AFC) quarter-finals has helped his team in leaving behind the disappointment of finishing third in the National Football League.

Speaking here, Pereira said the aim of Mahindra United from the beginning was to make the second round of AFC Cup and after the disappointment of the NFL campaign, it became all the more important and gave them more reasons to fight.

''Reaching the last eight stage of the AFC Cup in a way has made amends for the disappointment in the National Football League,'' he said.

Mahindra defeated Maldives Club New Radiant 2-0 in their concluding league match to qualify for the AFC Cup quarter-finals as the best second placed team from Groups D, E and F (East, South and South East Asia Zone).

Reflecting on the performance in their last match, where they gained the maximum points to make the grade, Mahindra coach said they overall functioned well as a unit.

The Mahindra coach also stated the record 9-0 win over Kolkata outfit Mohammedan Sporting played its part in reinstating the confidence back among the strikers after a goal-drought was witnessed in the preceding matches.

Pereira also felt that, had the scheduling of the AFC Cup and National Football League matches been much better, they could have come up with better results.

''If there had been much better planning in the scheduling of the NFL and AFC Cup matches, we could have performed much better''.

''There was not enough time for the players to recover, plan and prepare for a certain match. In spite of all this the boys put in their best efforts and played well except in the match against Hindustan Aeronautics Limited,'' said Pereira.

Looking forward to the next season and the prospects of fielding a new set of players for the AFC Cup quarter-finals, in view of the reported move of several key players in moving out, Pereira remarked that a change in the system of playing would be there considering the player's ability.

''We have to change the system according to the ability of the players. Have to wait and see. Its very difficult to say at this moment.'' UNI GS PD PDS ND1936