Odisha FC head coach Josep Gombau revealed that he always felt that he would come back to the club. He enjoyed a two-year spell where the team played an attractive brand of football. Despite a lot of promise, results did not go their way, and missed out on the semi-finals. They did well in the Durand Cup before getting eliminated by Bengaluru FC.
“Even the day that I was leaving, I was thinking, one day I will come back here because I enjoyed a lot and in the league, and I liked a lot the people here,” Odisha FC head coach Josep Gombau said. “What I also liked a lot was the desire the players showed to grow and how the players wanted to work. The Indian players are hard workers. they want to learn, they want to grow and I like to work with these kinds of people and players. Amrinder is a very good goalkeeper and we were looking for someone like him after Kamaljit joined East Bengal. He is a leader and will improve our team.”
Meanwhile, tournament director Lt. gen. KK Repswal believes that the inclusion of all the ISL teams increased the quality of the tournament.
“All 11 teams, except for I think one or two teams probably, had a mix of experience and youth. All these teams just before the ISL season started, were fortunate to get some good practice matches. Otherwise, some of these clubs need to travel abroad to give actual practice matches to the teams,” Repswal said. “So it’s a good opportunity for them also to get some really good matches before they start with ISL and definitely to help us improve the quality of football. The spectators get some very good matches and it draws more crowd.”
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