Travancore Titanium did not have a great season. The current 2nd Division I-League campaign saw them gather only six points from six matches. Goal.com caught up with Titanium Coach Rajeev Kumar to ask him about his thoughts on the season.
We first asked him about his thoughts on their last match against Chandni FC. He was concise when he said “I’m happy that we played properly”.
How did he like the team’s performances over the season? “We lost our first match against Malabar United because an unfair penalty kick was given and they converted it. We lost our three points there. We played well throughout but never got the results. Finally we played well and got a good result (against Chandni FC). We could have won many games but we didn’t”.
When asked if any players had stood out in particular, he was quick to point out the importance of teamwork. “All our players have done well. I cannot pick one or two. Our team has both junior and senior players and all have played well. We also have no foreign players in our team and have played well keeping that in mind”.
We asked him what his plans are for next season. He was very optimistic. “Next season we’ll surely be coming back. We’re planning to have as many as ten new players.”
Did Kumar enjoy the season? Was he pleased with how the tournament turned out? We were curious to know.
“Yes, the organization was proper. Better than last year. Some refereeing decisions were wrong, for example in our match against Chandni FC, one of our smaller players Diljith was hit purposely and neither the referee nor the linesman noticed it. The offending player should have been red carded. It seemed more like a rugby match than a football match.”
When asked if there was anything he wanted to specially mention, he was quick to thank the efforts of the club physio, Nishad. “We had a good physio with us. He helped a lot of our players recover from injuries.
With such a major overhauling planned for the team, Travancore are bound to come back stronger next year. Mr. Kumar is positive that they will make an impact. Will they be able to achieve promotion to the top level of Indian football? Only time will tell…
Image and Article Courtesy: Goal.com India
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Thursday 22 April 2010, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.