This game tells the story of our season: Clifford Miranda

Despite losing 0-2 to reigning champions Mumbai City FC in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) on Saturday, FC Goa assistant head coach Clifford Miranda was happy with the passion and quality of his team’s performance.

FC Goa, like most teams this season, squandered several scoring opportunities and were penalised for defensive errors.

Miranda believes his squad accomplished enough to win the game with all three points.

He spoke to the media after the match.

Here are the excerpts from the post-match press conference:

You missed a lot of coaches for many reasons. Was that the primary reason for the result today?

We have a squad and that’s why we have a squad. When someone is not there, there is someone who steps up. And I think whoever came in today, it was a fantastic performance by the team, both individually as well as collectively. We created more chances, we defended well, we were good in positional play in attack, we were first to second balls, but this is just the story of our season. We get punished for mistakes that we make.

How frustrating is it to miss a penalty early in the game?

It’s always nice to take the lead whether it’s a penalty or from open play. I never blame the players. We tried and the goalkeeper made a save. If we take an early lead, it helps the team but then the penalty can go either way. I felt we created enough chances apart from the penalty to take the lead and win this game.

What are the positives that you take from this game?

The team. The entire team, their performance. For the outside world, we had nothing to play for but if you see the players the way they played, the way we performed from the first minute to the last, we worked hard for each other and the team. And you can see the feeling when we lost, we were disappointed because after a wonderful and spirited performance with and without the ball, we went away with nothing.

Edu Bedia comes back after the suspension after the next game. Who else are you expected to have for the next match?

Let’s hope that everyone comes with a Covid-19 negative test because till the last minutes, you can’t say anything. At this moment, we can’t decide which team we are playing till the last minute, but we will be ready.