Gurpreet Singh Sandhu: Eager for the Hero ISL to start
Reigning champions Bengaluru FC will begin their Hero ISL title defence on October 21 with a home match against NorthEast United FC.
Reigning champions Bengaluru FC will begin their Hero ISL title defence on October 21 with a home match against NorthEast United FC. With the big day drawing closer, Bengaluru FC and India goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu can hardly wait for the action to start.
In a recent interview with indiansuperleague.com, Gurpreet, who was India's hero during their historic draw against AFC Asian Cup 2019 champions Qatar, opened up about the Blues' preparations for the season ahead. Here are the excerpts:
On preparations for Hero ISL 2019-20.
Pretty good. We’ve been training with the (Indian) national team for a long time and joined the club (Bengaluru FC) again straight after that. It is a bonus in a way. We are just ready to make sure that we still have that sharpness, in terms of playing with the team and getting to know each other on the pitch, especially with the club, and making sure that we are ready to join back with the national team.
Similarities in playing style of Bengaluru FC and the Indian national team.
In Bengaluru FC, we have great players Dimas Delgado, Eugeneson (Lyngdoh) and all these players who are very good with the ball and very confident. It makes my job easier as well, when we play. In the (Indian) national team, we have a similar kind of system and great players with the ball as well. Anirudh Thapa, Adil (Khan), (Rowllin) Borges are there and many others. It’s not very different from how we want to play, so it’s not very hard to transition between playing for club and country.
On playing against national teammates in the Hero ISL.
The Hero ISL has been long overdue and I have been very eager (for it) to start. I’m very eager to play in the Hero ISL. I just want to make sure that we (Bengaluru FC) are ready. We have a month’s time. We need to make sure that everyone arrives injury-free and are ready to accept all the challenges.