A week ago it was Ethiopia’s Fikru Teferra who had seized the centre-stage by scoring the opening goal of the Hero Indian Super League for Atlético de Kolkata. Today, the star of the show is Mumbai City FC’s Andre Moritz who recorded the tournament’s first hat-trick against FC Pune City.The 28-year-old Brazilian midfielder was training with Crystal Palace in London over the last few months because he was trying to regain his fitness. He landed in Kolkata two days before the inaugural match, absolutely jetlagged, and came on briefly in the second half during that 0-3 defeat. He started against Pune City and the rest is history, getting the first hat-trick of his career. Moritz however downplayed his achievement, claiming that he just tries to do his job.“I think it was not only myself but the whole team, we all played a really good game. It is very difficult to come back from a 3-0 defeat, but here in the next game everybody steps up and plays like this; it’s really very difficult, though it happens,” he said at the post-match press conference. “The boys are amazing, every training session we have, it seems like a family. I’m just glad to be part of this group and I’ll give my 100 per cent on the pitch,” he added."I’ll give my 100 per cent on the pitch."André MoritzAsked about his superb combination with the other striker Subhash Singh, the former Crystal Palace and Bolton Wanderers player (he has also played for clubs in Turkey and his native country) replied, “We had two training sessions together playing upfront, me and him, we talked a lot. It is really important to talk when you’re on the pitch. It’s a little bit tough with this language difference and everything. But football is just one language and once you step on the pitch it’s the same language. He’s showed that he’s a good player, he played a really good game today and I’m happy to play together with him.”Moritz thought the crowd support was amazing. “We could just hear them shout and they were backing us so I think they were our 12th player on the pitch. It’s really good to have the support of the crowd because everything just starts to go the right way,” he opined.The 2007 Copa do Brasil winner however cautioned that people should not get carried away by this big win: “In football, people have short memories, when you lose badly people say Mumbai is not good, when we win 5-0 people are saying we are the best team in the league. We need to keep our feet on the ground, keep our focus, keep on working hard and it will happen,”
