Kerala Blasters FC started their 2016 Hero Indian Super League campaign off on the wrong foot after a 1-0 defeat at the hands of NorthEast United FC in Guwahati on Saturday. Katsumi Yusa’s goal in the 55th minute proved to be the difference between the two sides. Blasters head coach Steve Coppell spoke to the media after the match and expressed his disappointment at the result.“We worked very hard. There wasn’t a great deal of chances created. Both teams played the same shape so to a certain extent they cancelled each other out. And it was just looking for a moment of brilliance to break the deadlock, and unfortunately for us NorthEast had the edge in that department. They created the one clear opportunity, I think, of the evening,” the Englishman said.Playing at home, the Highlanders dominated ball possession from the start but it took a while for the visitors to have a go at goal. Coppell admitted his team weren’t up to scratch. “We kept giving the ball away. They had more composure in possession and we worked hard to win the ball back but when we did get the ball we give it away again. So, you know, it was a long time coming for us to have an active foot in the game. That was disappointing but you know we just go on to the next game now and look forward to that,” he said.Coppell also didn’t rule out that nervousness might have been the reason behind their anxious start as it was their opening match of the season. “Well, I would say the first game being away from home, must have been an element of that [nervousness] because we’ve been quite composed not only in training but also in the pre-season games we played and then tonight you know we didn’t really control the ball,” he said.He continued: “They closed us down better than we closed them down and it was just a slow display from us. I thought we had more in the locker and it was only at half-time that we started talking about it and got involved in the game more but it still wasn’t to my satisfaction.“We can do better, we can coach better and the players can play better. You know, it’s the starting position, I think every team would want to play at home the first game but now we go home. We have three games at home, that doesn’t really mean anything, it’s not a great advantage but I would hope we can be a little more composed in possession when we go back home to Kochi next week.”Coppell also said Kerala Blasters certainly missed start midfielder Josu Currais who couldn’t feature in the match on account of suspension. “Well, I wish he was available but he wasn’t available so I can say yes we did miss him, who knows. I thought Ishfaq Ahmed played well, he got himself forward as well as he could and again we have the balance of Indian players and internationals, you know, that’s something I’m going to consider for the next game.”
