'The referee added 7 minutes, that's all I have to say', Jorge Costa quashes claims of time wasting against Hyderabad FC

Back in October, Mumbai City FC began their campaign in wonderful fashion, bagging four points across their opening couple of away fixtures. Since then though, the Islanders encountered a rather sticky patch at home, wherein they failed to win any of their first three contests.

Unsurprisingly, all eyes were on Jorge Costa’s troops when they took the field on the 29th of December, in search of that elusive victory. Fortunately for the Portuguese, his players delivered, meaning that they overcame Hyderabad FC 2-1, despite playing a quarter of the match with 10 men.

However, the game was barred by a few instances of players taking too much time to recover from cramps and subsequently, marching off the field at snail’s pace. To that though, the Portuguese promptly replied,

"I have an easy answer to that. The referee added 7 minutes. That’s all I have to say."

Thereafter, Costa was quizzed about the quality of refereeing and the point his counterpart, Phil Brown, had made about the footballers putting more pressure on the referee. The Mumbai City FC head coach answered,

"In India, I am there to help the referees and to share my experience. I am available for anything I can help. But, my job isn’t to worry about this and rather prepare my players for anything that comes up. I am also helping the national team also and these things about refereeing and the likes are better left for others to write using their pens, papers and laptops."

However, he also pointed out that the quality hasn’t been too great, a fact emphasized by most coaches complaining about the same. He also said that if he started to crib, it wouldn’t really help them improve and one must rather focus on enhancing themselves every day.

Over the past few weeks, the rub of the green hasn’t always gone the Islanders’ way. On Sunday though, they managed to stave off a situation of numerical inferiority to script a triumph. On the difficulties facing his side, he remarked,

"We have been facing several difficulties and today also, Bidya and Sourav played their first game. But, I’m happy with the way they played and we are happy with the way we performed against a very good team. All the teams in the ISL are very good and we know we won’t have any easy games in the coming weeks. But, in football, sometimes you play great and you lose and on other occasions, you don’t play so well and win. That’s football and we have to keep working to be better in every moment."

Having said that, Costa also relayed information that Paulo Machado would be missing for the rest of the season. On being quizzed about a potential replacement, he quipped,

Paulo is nearly impossible to replace, although I believe in miracles sometimes. But, still we won’t add a player just for the sake of it. If we sign someone, it will only be if he helps the team.

Thus, despite a vital victory on Sunday, the Portuguese was aware of the monumental task on hand, especially considering the rather overcrowded nature of the treatment table.

Yet, in his own inimitable way, Costa ensured that those in attendance weren’t too worried about the perilous predicament, courtesy his ability to methodically chalk out the modus operandi his team needed to follow: an approach where the onus firmly lies on concentrating on oneself rather than thinking about ancillaries.

And, that, more than anything else, could be the tonic to their ailments.