Indian Football

Romeo Fernandes created history when he made his much anticipated professional debut in Brazil for Clube Atletico Paranaense at home to Nacional PR in the last round of the Campeonato Paranaense on Saturday.

The Goan footballer became the first Indian to feature in Brazilian professional football. Since joining on loan from Dempo Sports Club, the 22 year-old has largely trained with the reserves but was put through his paces alongside the senior players over the last few days. 

Romeo was expected to make an appearance in the second half of the encounter with Nacional and was introduced in the 69th minute, replacing Rafinha.

Atletico, who lead the standings, were already 4-0 up when the Indian youngster took to the pitch and they eventually dispatched their opponents 5-0. 

After impressing in the Indian Super League with FC Goa, Romeo's Brazilian debut only adds to the recent progress of Indian players abroad. Last month, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu made his professional debut to Staebek FC in Norway to become the first Indian player to play a competitive match for a European club.

Royal Wahingdoh host Salgaocar FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Shillong in a Round 20 encounter in the I-League.

While the side from Shillong sit pretty at third place, Derrick Pereira's team is only sixth in the table.

Interestingly, the last and only time these two sides met, in the reverse fixture in Goa, the Royals enjoyed a surprising win and they built on their season from then on while the Greens went on a downward spiral.

Douhou Pierre has been the only constant for the Goa side as injuries and suspensions, besides mediocre performances have played spoil sport with Derrick's plans.

Daryl Duffy is still not 100% fit but the team have some belief back after last round's reassuring victory against Shillong Lajong, after losing in their four previous encounters.

The Scotsman will most likely again start from the bench as the former Pune FC coach will look to maintain the winning combination with Francis Kasonde and Augustin Fernandes back in defense. Bikash Jairu who got on the score sheet last time around will most likely start upfront, ably supported by their Ivorian playmaker.

For Royal Wahingdoh, no one can take away from their fairytale season so far, however their title aspirations have suffered a major jolt as they lost to Dempo while only managing a point against Mumbai FC.

That has allowed front runners Bengaluru FC and Mohun Bagan to open up quite a lead at the top. For instance, Santosh Kashyap's men are a point behind Bengaluru but have played two games more. 

Kashyap was not very happy with his attackers after the Mumbai game as he reckoned they failed to follow his instructions. 

“I’m very disappointed with the result. We dominated the full game but still had to settle for a 1-1. I’m not very happy with the attackers. Jackichand (Singh) cannot handle stardom. I think he needs more time. I gave one instruction and the boys followed something else. They then landed up in this situation. All the shots were off the target," said the coach, clearly not happy with the display against Mumbai.

Seong-Yong Kim with his recent goalscoring form has made himself an indispensable member of the squad and might start upfront with Densill Theobald marshaling the midfeid. All eyes will obviously be on Jackichand Singh who has taken the league by storm and will start on the flanks.

While Salgaocar will look to build on their win from their last match, Royal Wahingdoh will be desperate to recover their home form.

Dempo SC travel to Shillong to take on Shillong Lajong FC in a Round 20 I-League encounter at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Saturday. The two teams had met earlier in the league, with Thangboi Singto's men being the surprise 2-0 winners in Goa.

This would be the sixth time these two teams would meet, with the history favouring the north eastern side who have raked up three wins with a draw thrown in.

Lajong, who had finished sixth last season have somehow lost their way this time around. Instead of building on from there, they have slipped up and currently find themselves ninth, only two points above bottom placed, Sporting clube de Goa.

Their opponents have failed to deceive similarly as they are on the seventh spot, after finishing fourth last term. Trevor James Morgan has taken over after Arthur Papas was given the pink slip in the middle of the season.

It seemed like Singto had turned their season around with a 6-0 thrashing handed out to Mumbai FC and then followed it up with three consecutive draws. However, a disappointing loss against Salgaocar FC at home has again put them back to square one.

Having two of his first choice defenders, Robin Gurung and skipper AIborlang Khongjee missing hasn't helped Singto's cause and it looks like Pritam Singh and Samuel Shadap will have to make do yet again.

In attack though, Singto has all the firepower needed to pick points against any team in the league. Lack of clinical finishing was been their bane, as was evident against Mohun Bagan and Bharat FC. Cornell Glen, Uilliams Souza and Penn Orji who have been in fine form recently, will have to carry the burden of scoring for the Reds of Shillong.

The Golden Eagles, meanwhile have had a topsy turvy form off a late, after a poor start to their season. A win against Mumbai FC was followed by a defeat to Pune FC. While they did bounce back by defeating Royal Wahingdoh, a loss in their last match against East Bengal where they were completely outclassed, has certainly come at the wrong time for Morgan.

Add to this, Jewel Raja have been suspended by the All India Football Federation's (AIFF) Disciplinary Committee. Tolgay Ozbey has scored four goals in his last three substitute appearances and Morgan will hope for the same, but indicated he can come on 'only after half time'

Carlos Hernandez will still be missing with a groin injury while long term absentees, Pronay Haldar and Narayan Das continue to be sidelines with injuries. Haroon Amiri who had to go off early in the match against East Bengal has been added to the list of absentees.

Tolgay Ozbey would most likely partner Sushil Singh upfront as they will look to make the most of a leaky Lajong defense which has conceded 23 goals this season. Dempo would also need to shore up their defense as Calum Angus and Debabrata Roy struggled to contain the East Bengal strikers last weekend.

Three points separate the two sides, admittedly with Lajong having a game in hand but the encounter will surely be a six pointer to get out of the relegation showdown. 

Mumbai FC host Mohun Bagan at the Cooperage Stadium in Mumbai for a Round 20 I-League encounter. The last encounter between the two at the Salt Lake Stadium was way back in January where Mohun Bagan had ended up comfortable 3-1 winners.

When it comes to head to head, the Kolkata side are massively dominant as they have won eight times in the 15 matches the two teams have faced each other, with four ending in draws.

Sanjoy Sen's men had started their five match away sojourn on a disastrous note, losing 3-2 against Royal Wahingdoh but have bounced back in time, with a dominant 2-0 display against Pune FC.

Balwant Singh will be serving out the final game of his two match suspension and Sen will look to start the same side that tore apart the Red Lizards.

Pierre Boya hasn't still recovered from injury and would once again start on the bench. Jeje Lalpekhlua would lead the line as Manish Bhargav will be given another opportunity to impress.

Katsumi Yusa and Sony Norde would start on either flanks and would be a handful for the shaky Mumbai full backs. Anwar Ali, a former Mumbai player will continue to partner the brilliant Bello Rasaq in defense as Kingshuk Debnath will most likely sit out.

The Yellow and Blues meanwhile will look to upset the title contenders as coach, Khalid Jamil will be serving the last of his four match suspension.

Interestingly, Jamil's absence hasn't deterred the Mumbai players who have eked out three draws away from home and are back on home turf, where they last lost against Dempo SC. While it seems they have recovered from the 6-0 thrashing handed out to them by Shillong Lajong, they will look to gather all three points to make their position on the table comfortable.

Currently in the eigth place with 16 points, they are only separated from bottom placed Sporting clube de Goa by five points but have played a game more.

After risking Taisuke Matsugae in the match against East Bengal, the Japanese attacking midfielder did not play a part in the next two matches and will still be missing along with winger, Paresh Shivalkar.

Josimar da Silva will be the lone striker upfront, while Justine Stephen and Chika Wali will look to shut the door for the away team. The onus will however be on the two fullbacks, Rahul Bheke and Ashutosh Mehta to contend with the pace and trickery of Katsumi Yusa and Sony Norde, Bagan's twin threats.

Both teams would desperately want three points from this encounter, but for starkly different reasons. Mohun Bagan need it to extend their lead over the title challengers while Mumbai FC need it to get away from the relegation dogfight.