Mumbai FC sweat on fitness of Taisuke, Son

Looking to bounce back after a string of three losses in their last four games, Mumbai FC await the fitness report of two injured foreign recruits, medio Taisuke Matsugae and defender Son Minchol, ahead of the I-League football game against Sporting Clube de Goa tomorrow.
"We will wait for the training session to see whether Taisuke and Minchol can take the field tomorrow. It's an important game for us," Mumbai coach Khalid Jamil said today.
Mumbai have not won anything away this season but have also not succumbed to a defeat at home, and Sporting Goa - boasting of veteran striker Odafa Okolie, who is one of the top goal-scorers in the league this season (5 from 8 games) - need to pull out all stops in order to subdue the home team.

While the Nigerian Odafa hovers as the biggest threat for Mumbai, coach Jamil said there were others too to watch out for in the rival line-up.
"Odafa is not the only one. There are other good players too. We are happy to play at home and want a good home crowd support to egg us on," said Jamil, whose team is currently sixth on the nine-team table.
Mumbai have inducted two seasoned campaigners, Clifford Miranda and Sandip Nandy, on loan from Indian Super League teams Atletico de Kolkata and Kerala Blasters, respectively, but their transfer process was still on, said Jamil.

"Once the transfer papers are ready, they will be available to play," said Jamil.

The hosts would also be keen to avenge the 2-3 defeat to the Goans in their first leg encounter, in which their performing striker Sushil Kumar Singh scored two goals.
Sporting, who were fourth prior to today's game between Shillong Lajong and DSK Shivajians, would be eager to continue their domination of the hosts.
They would be depending a lot on Odafa, who scored two penalties in their earlier win, to slice through the Mumbai defence, which may miss Son.
They also go into the game after tasting defeat against defending champions Mohun Bagan in Kolkata.

"Yes, that win (over Mumbai) is at the back of the mind, but every game is new," said Sporting coach Mateus Costa.