Defending Champs Dempo will take on Viva Kerala

KANNUR: Defending champions Dempo Sports Club will take on Viva Kerala at Jawahar stadium, here, tomorrow in the 13th round I-League encounter.  After 12 matches, Dempo have 19 points, with five wins and four draws, while Viva Kerala have eight points, with one win and five draws.

Dempo are fifth while Viva Kerala are 13th place on the league table. Both the teams practiced at the venue this morning.  Last year, Viva Kerala had beaten Dempo by a solitary goal in a home match at Kozhikode and had lost away 3-1.

Viva’s coach Kunhikrishnan P has introduced a new player for tomorrow’s match to better their points in league table with international M P Pradeep set to play the first match for the Kerala outfit in this session along with Chinta Chandrasekhar of Karnataka, who was played against Indian Arrows on January 29.

Three foreign players, including captain Bello Rasaq and Felix Chimaokvou of Nigeria and Charles Dzisah of Ghana could pose a threat to Dempo under home conditions.

Meanwhile, Dempo’s coach Armando Colaco was confident that his players are in form to beat Viva Kerala and earn full points from this match. He said Dempo will be keen to improve their standings from the existing place and the team will be bolstered with the presence of internationals Climax Lawrence, Clifford Miranda and Mahesh Gawli, who are in the side after finishing their national duties at Asian Cup.
Meanwhile, it will be a litmus test for Air India when they take on Salgaocar SC in a round 13 tie at Kolhapur on Thursday.

The pressure to win the match will be more on the home side in order to keep themselves out of relegation zone. And the onus for winning the match will be on young guns.

Though Air India is placed 12th in the points table, it remains to be seen if they are able to jump a few more places higher producing another upset against Salgaocar who are currently placed second in the points table with 27 points, three points behind toppers East Bengal.

Salgaocar on the other hand have been impressive in the entire season so far and have done well in their performances in every round and have rightly kept themselves available for the title race. The Goan outfit come into the match with a solitary goal win over another Mumbai based side, Mumbai FC in the last round.

The Goan giants will miss their man in-form and their highest goal scorer, Ryuji Sueoka due to double booking. Gilbert Oliveira will miss the important tie due to one match automatic suspension.