ISL 2022-23: Coach Des Buckingham pleased with Mumbai City FC's show against Hyderabad FC
Mumbai City FC and Hyderabad FC played out a hard fought 1-1 draw at the Mumbai Football Arena on Saturday, a result that is in favour of the current table-toppers.
FollowDes Buckingham, the head coach of Mumbai City FC, was pleased with his team's effort when the Islanders fought Hyderabad FC to a 1-1 draw in the most recent Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2022-23 match on Saturday at the Mumbai Football Arena.
In the 23rd minute, Jorge Diaz scored the first goal for the home team from the penalty spot, giving Buckingham's men the lead going into halftime. Hitesh Sharma scored the visitor's equaliser in the 65th minute after Mohammad Yasir assisted Hyderabad FC to take the lead early in the second half. Both teams were near scoring the second goal, but they could only earn one point.
With only three games remaining in the regular season, the Islanders still lead the race for the League Shield trophy by seven points. Manolo Marquez's team, meanwhile, kept up their eight-match winning streak and held in second position in the Hero ISL standings.
With the rematch ending 3-3 in October, the outcome represented the second draw for both teams this season. Against an outstanding team, Buckingham explained, it was a crucial point, and he expressed satisfaction with the performance.
"We've had three or four changes to our team again this week, to perform the way we did, which I see very similar things to what I have done in the last 16 or 17 games now, that was very pleasing because it shows that regardless of the changes, we make the players understand what we're trying to do, and regardless who we put in there, they're capable," Buckingham said in the official post-match press conference.
"We deserved to go into half-time with the lead. For the second half, they started better than we did. And I think they had one shot on goal for the whole game on target and then scored it. We tried everything we could in the second half. We created as many chances as we could, we just couldn't find the winner. But overall, in terms of performance with the changes that we've had to make, from what I've just seen in terms of performance, very happy with it. It's an important point against a very good team, who are also challenging up there with us. So it just puts us in a stronger position for the final three matches," the Mumbai City FC coach added.
This year, it was a matchup between two of the Hero ISL's top defensive squads. This season, both teams have recorded a joint-high seven clean sheets, with Mumbai City FC surrendering the third-fewest goals (9) and Hyderabad FC giving up the fewest (10) goals (15). Buckingham expressed his satisfaction with his team's defensive efforts this season and described how they had progressed from the previous one.
"It's part of our game plan. Out of possession, we want to be a team that if we can, I want to win the ball back as far up the field as we can. The work rate and the desire that the players cover defensively is very good, so much better than last year. Whether we need to go on press or whether we sit in our compact block at some point in the midfield or we dropped deeper to defend our goal, it's a real desire this year to make sure that we don't concede not just goals, but shots on our goal. We need to be a lot better defensively than we were last year and so far this year, I'm very happy with that progress," Buckingham said.
With 13 victories and four ties in their first 17 league games, the Islanders are unblemished. The team is focused on the upcoming match against FC Goa, according to Buckingham, who expressed his satisfaction with the team's progress this season.
"I'm very happy with the progress we've made from the first to the 17th match. Now the best thing that we can do is just make sure that we get ready for FC Goa. We just need to make sure that we continue to give performances that get results and we'll do that against FC Goa next week," Buckingham concluded.
