Chirag United hopes to light up I-League

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October 22 will mark the commencement of the I-league 2011-12 and the league season of Chirag United Kerala.

Chirag will be facing HAL Bangalore in their first away match on the day. However, the Kerala club is still busy in the transfer market and is trying to rope in some experienced foreign legs.

Recently, their new Sri Lankan coach Mohamed Nizam Packeer Ali took charge of the club and is in a drive to bring in a competitive start in the I-League after their failed Federation Cup campaign in Kolkata.

“I am not familiar with the players of most of the clubs and their playing style. But I will catch up. I have ordered CDs of the Federation Cup matches to understand their playing styles,” the former captain of the Sri Lankan team said.

“One of the most important factors is to bring the team together as a single unit. For that, we need more practice matches,” he says.

K. Ajayan, the captain of the team, also agrees with the observation made by the coach. “Whatever we have done so far has to reflect on the field. So the team will be playing a couple of practise matches in the coming days,” he said.

One of the major problem of the club in the last seasons was the away matches, he said. “We are trying to figure out the problem and perform well in the away matches also. At least, a point in an away match will be great of use for us. It’s just that we cannot afford losing a point,” he said.

However, the team must start the league with a win, stresses Ajayan. “The first-match victory contributes a lot psychologically to the performances of the team in the latter matches. So we want to start with a victory against HAL,” Ajayan says.

The second match is against Mohun Bagan AC in Kolkata and the third match of the club is against Pune FC in Pune. After that the club has four home matches.

“We are trying to perform better than the Federation Cup. The failure of the club in the Federation cup was attributed to the injury of key defensive players. However, everyone is fit now and the team will be in its full strength before the first match in the I-League,” he says.

Ghanaian defender Charles Dzisah will be joining the team shortly to add power. Also, the coach is happy with the performance of the the Australian striker Michael Matricciani and Ghanaian defender Isaac Boakye.