Delhi Dynamos have a crunch clash against Pune City in Pune, with their semifinals hopes on the line. A win will catapult them into the top four, but a draw will make their task much more difficult, and a loss will knock them out of the running entirely. On the eve of the game, head coach Harm van Veldhoven addressed the media and was accompanied by striker Mads Junker and midfielder Steven Dias.“There are only two games to go, and everybody’s making a lot of speculations of course,” said Van Veldhoven. “Pune is in good shape. We too have, in the last three games, taken seven points, and are ready to go for it. We’re just going to play and see what we can do. We’ll try to win.”The 52-year-old Dutch-Belgian gaffer conceded that though all teams aim for a victory, situations might see teams settle for a draw. “The last team is on 12 points, the second team is on 18 points, so the difference between second and eighth is only two games. You can never be sure. People see how the game is going on, how strong we are. We’re going for three points, but it’s possible that we have to be satisfied with a point.” Asked whether the coach will play it safe and go for a point, “From the start, I’ve never been satisfied with a point, from the first game till the last game. You can only be satisfied with three points, but sometimes you just have to see what’s in it.”“We know that with one point, anything is possible of course, but we have come to play football, and let us hope we can take all the points. Everything’s possible in this competition, that’s the nice part of it. The difference is not so much, and in football you have to take your chances. Let’s hope the best for us, and a very good game for everybody.”There’s no room for advantages or freshness, according to the coach, as he does not feel three or four days make that much of a difference. Along with that, marquee player Del Piero is a doubt for the clash, with cramps and a slight fever, but the team will not be dependent on him. “We hope to use every player as well as possible. I hope he (Del Piero) is fit tomorrow, and that we can bring him in. We’ve started with everybody and also hope that we end with everybody.”The team has had a late resurgence which showed in their performances, and coach has an explanation for that. “The teams who always tried to play football did not always win, because when you rest players, it’s sometimes not good for the game. So sometimes we have to play a little smart, like waiting and playing on the counter, and then kill the games. We try playing the ball on the ground, but have not always had results.” But the coach has a few encouraging words for the Indian players in the squad. “I got to see a lot of good Indian players and saw them grow in the competition.”Forward Mads Junker added “In the beginning of the season, a lot of players got cramps, because the weather was different for the foreign players, mostly the European players.” There is also a hint of pressure to perform tomorrow and get a result. “I think so. You have to be cautious at times when you play away. You don’t always have to win the game in the first minutes; you can win it even in the ninetieth minute. They’re going through a good spell; we are also in a good spell. We scored six goals in three games, so the team is in good form. If we head into the semifinal with this form we can be a very dangerous team. It was different two weeks ago, but we’re feeling confident now.”
