United SC go underprepared into the 35th Federation Cup

I-League side United SC continue to struggle financially and therefore coach Eelco Schattorie goes into the 35th Federation Cup not sounding very optimistic about his team’s chances and stressed that he will handle problems as they come his way.

“No expectations from here. We will go and see what God gives us. I am disappointed with the preparations, so no expectations,” a straightforward Eelco Schattorie said.

United SC are placed in Group A and will take on Churchill Brothers SC (January 14), Eagles FC (January 17) and Pune FC (January 20) in the group stage matches to be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Kochi.

With Sangram Mukherjee and Ishan Debnath out, United SC have signed young East Bengal goalkeeper Jayanta Pal on loan as competition to another youngster in Abhijit Das. Reliable Bello Rasaq is out with illness and that means Anupam Sarkar is back in the first team squad while Sheikh Azim retains his place in defence, while the search for creative midfielders continues with Lal Kamal Bhowmick, Souvik Chakraborty and Tapan Maity are all expected to start.

But there is also good news as Liberian Eric Brown is now fully fit and will join Ranty Martins Soleye and C.K. Vineeth in the team’s hunt for goals.

The Purple Brigade is poised to take on a brand new Churchill Brothers side who have roped in new foreigners recently, but the Kolkata side will try to repeat the heroics of their dramatic 3-2 win against the Red Machines earlier this season.

Goalkeepers

Abhijit Das, Jayanta Pal

Defenders

Deepak Kumar Mondal, Sukhen Dey, Hasan Al Moustafa, Sheikh Azim, Anupam Sarkar, L. Dhanachandra Singh

Midfielders

Asif Kottayil, Souvik Chakraborty, Tapan Maity, Lal Kamal Bhowmick, Baldeep Singh, C.K. Vineeth, Snehashis Chakroborty

Forwards

Ranty Martins Soleye, Eric P. Brown, Mohammed Rafique, Rajinder Kumar, Surojit Bose

Officials

Eelco Schattorie (Head Coach)