CHENNAI: Marco Materazzi is not one of those people who like admitting defeat. But on Thursday, the Chennaiyin FC coach was surprisingly candid as he faced the media after the Blues’ 1-3 defeat against Delhi Dynamos. “It couldn’t have gone worse than this,” was how Materazzi characterised Chennaiyin’s display.
“It was a tough game today. We didn’t play well and they deserved to win. I take responsibility for this. We will show that we can bounce back from this.” The Italian conceded that Chennaiyin’s home return after lifting the ISL trophy last season could have resulted in an even heavier defeat. “There were 6-8 bad mistakes,” he said.
“We're lucky that the score was only 3-1. The whole defence was suffering. We were not playing as a team. We did not have the required depth in passing, and did not have the required pace.” But Materazzi was quick to rush to the defence of defender Nallappan Mohanraj, who had an absolute howler on the field. “Maybe he needs time to integrate with the team,” he said. “We lost as a team today, and we’ll win together as well.”
Meanwhile, Delhi counterpart Gianluca Zambrotta was more than happy to get one over his former Italian teammate. But he also had a word of caution for his Delhi players. “Of course, I'm happy,” he said.
“But we have to learn how to close the match early, and not wait for the end. You have to remember that this is our first game of the championship. We're happy with what we got today. But from tomorrow, we have to start thinking about the rest of the championship.”