ISL 2020-21 | Foul on Princeton was not football, it was Taekwondo, exclaims Juan Ferrando
Juan Ferrando revealed that only six of his players were match-fit on Friday evening.
|ISL
FC Goa head coach Juan Ferrando feels that the tackle on Princeton Rebello by Mourtada Fall was so nasty that it looked as if they were playing Taekwondo. The ‘Gaurs’ were held to a 2-2 draw in the opening leg of their semi-final, even though they took the lead twice during the course of the game.
FC Goa were missing out on some of their core players in the crucial tie, but they were expected to put up a fight against Mumbai City FC. But, a 2-2 result was not on the cards, with the ‘Gaurs’ giving their opponents a real run for their money. In a match that saw a few heated challenges, Mourtada Fall’s tackle on Princeton Rebello was a rash one, with FC Goa’s head coach Juan Ferrando stating that it was not football but looked like a ‘Taekwondo’ move.
"(Tackle on Princeton) is not football, (Fall's) tackle is taekwondo,” said Juan Ferrando, following the 2-2 draw, last Friday evening.
Even though FC Goa took the lead twice during the game, with strikes from Igor Angulo (20th minute) and Saviour Gama (59th minute), but failed to maintain the lead. As per Ferrando, many of their players were suffering from injuries and were not 100% match-fit, which did have an effect on the game.
"Today we were playing with six players who were 100 percent fit. The rest of the players had big problems. Edu Bedia for example has a fracture but had injections to help the team. But it is difficult to play in these conditions. It was our mentality to win all the time. But sometimes it is not possible," said the Spanish manager.
