Eager to assisst AIFF in grassroots development-Zico

The Brazilian was happy after his side's first win of the season...

FC Goa head coach Zico is a relieved man following his team's first win of the 2016 Hero Indian Super League against Mumbai City FC at the Mumbai Football Arena on Friday evening. Last season's runners-up, the Gaurs stared their new season off on the wrong foot with three successive defeats. They improved greatly in their 1-1 draw against Atlético de Kolkata in their last game, and on Friday they went from strength to strength and registered their first win of the season thanks to Richarlyson's goal in the 41st minute. “So our season so far has not been the best season because we have had five games and we lost three but our players have a lot of character and reaction power and we showed grit in Kolkata and we showed grit over here and we knew how hard the game would be today and we didn't give them so many opportunities, and it was a strong factor why we won today. In the second half, we had various opportunities to score more goals but we are happy with the victory today,” Zico told reporters after the match. “I think we didn't start the way we wanted but you can see that this league is well balanced and you can see all the matches are also well balanced… Now we start our work again and we need to just keep working and the results will come.” The Brazilian legend also praised Goa midfielder Pratesh Shirodkar, who made his first start this season and passed the test against his old team with flying colours. “So he played very well and marked Pronay [Halder] and [Matias] Defederico very well. I think not just Pratesh but all the players fulfilled their roles very nicely. So, you can see Defederico had only one chance and that too from outside the box, so I think our defence did very well,” the 63-year-old said. Zico also made it clear he wasn't averse to coaching at the AIFF grassroots level in the interests of Indian football. “I think everything depends on scheduling because you need to sit and see what is possible because a project needs vision. I would love to sit and discuss because I love to work with the youth for football development and it can be good if we sit and talk. So, I love to work with the youth and I love to teach and you can ask the players about my coaching like Pronay, Haokip [Thongkhosiem], Mandar [Rao Dessai] and Romeo [Fernandes], and you can ask them how I developed their football and for me age is not a problem and it doesn't matter if the age is 17,18,30 or 35 and I always look at them and put them on the ground and try to bring out their best performance,” Zico said. [KH_RELATED_NEWS title="Related News"][/KH_RELATED_NEWS]Report and Photo Courtesy: ISL Media