Kerala Blasters FC head coach Peter Taylor is looking forward to his team’s encounter with reigning champions Atlético de Kolkata in their first meeting since last year’s Hero Indian Super League final. Add to it, the atmosphere at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata is expected to be electric with the legendary Pele set to be in attendance as the guest of honour. Taylor believes his players can draw inspiration from the presence of the three-time World Cup winner and also recalls fond memories of when his footballing journey crossed paths with that of Brazil’s all-time leading goal-scorer.“I hope anybody would be inspired by Pele watching the match and I’ve got to say I’m sorry for this name-dropping but I’ve actually played against him for 20 minutes. It’s my proudest moment and I never got the ball off him but he was a fantastic player! So any player that knows of the great Pele, it will be marvellous he will be watching the match,” said Taylor.The Englishman is pleased with the start made by his side and was dismissive of the notion that his side’s goalless draw against Mumbai City FC in their last match would have a say in his players’ performance against Kolkata on Tuesday.He said: “In our first game, we did really well. In our last game, we did everything we could do to win the match but couldn’t. However, we kept a clean sheet which is very pleasing. We work hard, we train hard on everything we do, going forward and defending. And if you keep a clean sheet and be hard to beat then we’ve always got the opportunity of scoring at the other end but you get games like that in football. It’s impossible to win every game but we have to make sure we don’t get beat and we’ve done that. It took us five games last year to get four points but we’ve played two games this year and got four points so at the moment we’re ahead but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves, we know it’s going to be a tough game on Tuesday.”When asked if it was the right time to face Atlético de Kolkata with players away on national duty and the absence of ATK’s marquee signing through injury, having earlier confirmed that their own marquee man is now eligible for a start after recovering from injury, Taylor was quick to point out that the same can be said about his own team.“Well, we have two players away with the national team as well so I think over the season and over the time everything just evens itself out. So we have two players – Sandesh Jhingan and Cavin Lobo – whom to me would be in our team and they can’t play because they’re playing for India which is lovely for them. So I’m sure Kolkata are the same; they would like to have some of the players that are playing for India at the same time. So it’s even for both teams, we have a lot of respect for Kolkata. We know they won the competition last year, we know they are a strong team and we know they’ve had a bit more rest than us which again does even itself out over the season. Hopefully, the next time we play them, we have more rest than them,” he opined.Taylor is expecting a tough contest against the defending champions; he alluded to how both sides are pretty similar in their approach to the game when fielding questions about the tactical similarities between the two teams.“Both of us (Kerala and Kolkata) work very hard in team shape and I think if you could work hard and have decent team shape when you haven’t got the ball, you’re always hard to break down so that’s why maybe both teams got to the final last season,” added Taylor.
