North East United FC head coach Ricki Herbert was in good spirits and at the same time confident that his team has the players and the character to overcome the hurdle of beating Kerala Blasters at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kochi, on Thursday, in their quest to make the semi-finals. “Kerala are a side that are coming on the back of a loss, and so are we. I know that my team has the players, although we have some injuries to cope up with. My whole philosophy is to give young Indian players a chance to play and perform and you can see that they have the right character to play for North East United. We are a young team that tries hard but we have come here to make it tough for Kerala and that is what we will do,” he said at the pre-match press conference. The former New Zealand manager at the 2010 World Cup acknowledged that his team had to win their remaining two games to make it to the play-offs, but pointed out that several other teams were in a similar situation, and all his team could do is go out and play and win their remaining two games. “When you look at the league and see there are teams like us who need to win their remaining two games to make it to the playoffs, I think it is a great position for the league to be in,” he declared. The former Kiwi international defender confessed that he had injury concerns and was not sure which players would be fit for the game tomorrow. Nevertheless, he expressed optimism about the Highlanders’ chances and faith in his team’s ability. “We have a few players that have stayed back at the hotel to do a separate training session, so I will know about their status later on. But we have a lot of young Indian players that are good, and I have seen that whenever these young Indian players play well, we have gone out and won games. So I am hoping that this is the case tomorrow as well,” he said with a smile. “We have been tagged as underdogs since the beginning of the season and I don’t mind being tagged that, as it doesn’t change anything.” When asked about how Kerala have progressed since they last met, Herbert conceded that the southerners had not yet got into their stride then, but now, as they have since found some rhythm. “When we first faced them they had not yet quite built team understanding, and they also had five away games to play, but since then, they have done well and the team has performed too. So tomorrow’s game is against a good side, especially with the crowd behind them, and hopefully, there will be a few goals tomorrow,” he concluded.
