The Islanders’ head coach believes working with the same group while adding the right profiles has led Mumbai City FC to second league title in three seasons
Mumbai, 14th February: The Islanders have secured the 2022/23 Hero ISL League Winners’ Shield after their resounding victory against FC Goa on the 11th of February in a match that ended 5-3. Coach Des Buckingham and his troops are yet to lose a game this season, leaving them only 2 games short of an ‘Invincible’ campaign.
Des Buckingham was ecstatic and emotional after the win as he said, “I have so many personal memories that I treasure but this moment is up there, not because of a shield or a trophy but in terms of what we have been able to do and how we have been able to do it. It is a wonderful achievement but we are far from finished, we want the double and we work towards that goal now.”
“You have to enjoy the moment. A lot of people have been away from their friends and family for this project and when we went back to the hotel we had the families waiting for us there so that was a nice, touching gesture.”, he added.
This is Mumbai City FC’s second shield after winning the league title back in 2020-21 and their first piece of silverware under Des Buckingham. The Englishman has got the Islanders playing a brand of exciting, attacking football which has seen them score a whopping 53 goals in 18 league games.
Des Buckingham believes the chemistry of the team and the focus in the group led them to the title. “When I look at our team right now it looks very similar to last time so the time that we got to work on with the same group and adding quality in terms of foreign players that suit the way we want to play to the mix has been a major contributing factor for this journey.”, he said.
“We knew we wanted to concede lesser goals than we did last year. It’s been about working with the group we had last year, making them play better individually while also making them work better as a unit. It has been wonderful to watch the backline perform so well after all the work we put in; it will be important for the upcoming playoffs.”, he added.
The 38 year old signed off saying, “We are a club that wants to be successful and hopefully the foundations of the work that has gone in over the past 18 months is visible now as this will help us not just for a potential ‘double’ but for future seasons as well.”
Mumbai City FC will take on Bengaluru FC away from home at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in their penultimate league game of the 2022-23 campaign.
