(Football news) Mumbai City entered the Super Cup following an almost faultless ISL season in which they won the League Winners’ Shield and narrowly lost in the semifinals. The Islanders, an all-Indian team who competed in the 2023 cup competition, faced I League team Churchill Brothers in the first match of Group D. Early in the match, the Goan team took the lead, but the Islanders responded with a goal of their own, and Des Buckingham’s team went on to win 2-1 thanks to a powerful header from Mehtab Singh in the first half and a penalty from Lallianzuala Chhangte in stoppage time. 

Des Buckingham, the head coach of the Islanders, was delighted with what he witnessed during the team’s valiant victory over Churchill Brothers,“I thought that we started off very well and we created numerous chances – I thought we had a penalty that wasn’t given in the first half. You have to get off to a good start, especially in tournament football. We played with a very young, all-Indian team. To not only get the win, but also the manner in which we did it, is very pleasing. We stuck true to how we like to play and it took until the last minute to get the winner, but that’s what this group is all about.”

Mumbai City is using the Super Cup to help the club’s indigenous talent get better. The team is made up entirely of Indian players. Speaking on how the relatively youthful squad approached the game against Churchill Brothers, Buckingham added, “New players were coming into the starting lineup, new relationships were being formed and it took a little bit of time for those players to get on the same wavelength and that’s always the case. But once they did, we created many chances, certainly in the first half. On any given day, we would have scored three or four more. So, I was very happy with how the team played.” 

The Highlanders, who had a discouraging regular season and placed last in the ISL, entered the Super Cup under new management. At the conclusion of the ISL season, Vincenzo Annesse was fired from his position at NorthEast United, and assistant coach Floyd Pinto took over as the team’s head coach. They lost 4-2, in a game with a lot of scoring, to Chennaiyin FC to start their Super Cup season. 

Des Buckingham discussed the preparations his team has made to play NorthEast United in the Super Cup after his team defeated the Highlanders twice during the ISL regular season, “The league season is finished. There’s been some changes at NorthEast United. We’ve obviously made some changes in our squad in terms of the way that we’ve approached this tournament, wanting to give real developmental opportunities to Indian players and get minutes into them. We’ll do everything to position ourselves as well as we can to put in our best performance and hopefully, we come away with the desired result from the game.” 

Des Buckingham discussed the preparations his team has made to play NorthEast United in the Super Cup after his team defeated the Highlanders twice during the ISL regular season, “They are approaching the game slightly differently than what they did in the league. They will do it because they have a new coach. We obviously see that, but you can’t draw too much off of that because it’s one game. After four or five games, I think, you start to see trends of what they might be trying to do. So, we won’t get too caught up in what we think they might do. We’ll just prepare ourselves as well as we can to make sure that we can do what we need to do.” 

In his last remarks, Buckingham discussed the factors he believes have aided in the growth of the Islanders team’s players over the past 18 months he said,“They’re very well supported here at Mumbai City. The environment the club has created for them to work in is a very positive one. We give them a lot of encouragement to try and play a certain way. Yes, we went down by one goal in the last game through one mistake but the pleasing thing was we know that if we stick true to what we do, whether it takes us 30 minutes to get the equaliser or the 92nd minute to find the winner, the performance will often deliver a result for us and all the players know that.” 

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