Kerala Blasters FC are languishing in seventh spot in the eight-team Hero Indian Super League with just one point in three games, which is quite surprising considering that they have dished out some sparkling football along the way.It however came as no surprise when Kerala Blasters’ star forward Michael Chopra chose to dwell on the unpredictable nature of the beautiful game at a press conference today on the eve of his side’s fourth round match against FC Pune City at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex tomorrow. “Going into games, you’ve always got to believe that you’re going to win them. But football is a funny game. We dominated the first two games in possession and in attack, but we lost those. And comparatively, we didn’t do that well in the previous game, but came away with a draw,” the Englishman observed.Chopra, who is yet to open his account in the tournament, injured his left ankle while training in Kolkata a few days ago. With a lot of players struggling to adapt to the artificial turf at the Salt Lake Stadium in the ‘city of joy’, Chopra says he was lucky to escape serious injury. “It’s coming along good, better than what I thought. I was obviously disappointed to pick up what looked like quite a bad injury on the astroturf. We’ve trained on astroturf in Kerala before, but it was different there,” the former Newcastle United and Sunderland striker revealed.Chopra however claims that he had recovered sooner than expected though he will not be featuring in tomorrow’s match. “There is still a slight swelling though, but I’ve started jogging, and I’ll possibly try and play some part soon. Not tomorrow though, tomorrow’s too early,” he quipped.Chopra also rued not being able to try out new things in training on the road as they lack the security and privacy available at their home ground. “We can’t do a lot in training because you don’t know who is watching. Also, it takes a lot out of you, the time taken in traveling – especially in India,” he averred. “When we do eventually get to Kerala, Kochi, I think we’ll be in good stead, because we’ll have so many home games, and goals will start coming in thick and fast, and it’ll benefit the team.”
