Blasters and Mumbai aim to arrest indifferent ISL starts in Kochi

After beginning the Indian Super League season with two away fixtures, Kerala Blasters will host Mumbai FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Sunday in their first home match of the campaign. The fixture follows a 2-0 opening win over Inter Kashi in Pune and a 1-4 defeat to NorthEast United in Guwahati.

Kerala Blasters returned to Kochi after those two away games and prepared for the match with a training session in the city on Saturday. The team opened the season by beating Inter Kashi 2-0 at Pune and then lost 1-4 to NorthEast United in their most recent outing in Guwahati.

Blasters coach Ashley Westwood warned of a difficult game against Mumbai while assessing the opposition’s profile. “Mumbai haven’t earned as many points as their performances and statistics suggest they should have,” he said. “They are underperforming in terms of results, and their performances indicate that they’re better than their league position might suggest. They have good players, including several regular national-team players. They have quality foreign players too, a good manager and a strong club. So we are expecting a difficult match.”

Mumbai City arrived in Kochi after a 1-2 loss to Churchill Brothers and a 1-1 draw with Punjab FC in their recent matches. The visiting side conducted practice sessions on arrival in Kochi ahead of the Sunday fixture.

Westwood also set out the Blasters’ internal focus ahead of the game, stressing incremental improvement. “If we do that, we are doing our jobs correctly,” he said. “We can’t expect miracles, but we can expect daily improvement, hard work, determination and a genuine desire to win.”

The match at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi will be Kerala Blasters’ first home game of the ISL season and offers both teams an opportunity to address underwhelming starts to the campaign.