Hans Mulder made a great start to his Chennaiyin FC career as he scored a goal in his side’s 2016 Hero Indian Super League opener against Atlético de Kolkata at the Rabindra Sarobar Stadium on Sunday. Mulder, who joined the Super Machans from Delhi Dynamos FC earlier this year, scored in the 66th minute to give his side a 2-1 lead. However, the lead could only last 20 minutes as ATK’s top-scorer from last season Iain Hume equalised four minutes from time through a penalty to deny the reigning champions a win. Mulder spoke to indiansuperleague.com shortly after the match and discussed the 2-2 draw. Here are the excerpts from the interview.What is your assessment of the match?It’s always difficult, the first game. You need to get used to the heat, the pitch, everything but it’s not an excuse. We started a little slow, we came back well and were unlucky to have a penalty against us. Then they scored to make it 2-2.Not a bad start considering it’s a point away from home against a really strong Atlético de Kolkata side. What are your thoughts on that?Well, I think we both had quite a few good chances, any team could have won but if you look at the whole game maybe a draw is a fair result at the end.How do you feel the team is gelling?The pre-season went well. No injuries, that’s always good. Everybody is fit but as I said, it’s the first game so we’re getting used to it, getting used to the heat so after 20 minutes everybody was tired so we dropped a little bit but overall I think it’s been a good start for us and it can only get better.
