Football: Airtel Cup - Northern Dynamo look to defend their title |28 June 2018

With the 10th Airtel Cup set to begin, reigning champions Northern Dynamo plan to defend their title.

After winning last year’s Airtel Cup final, Northern Dynamo coach Cliff Nolin said their objective for this year’s competition is to defend their title.

Currently ranked 10th in the first division standings with two wins and eight losses, coach Nolin explained that the team had to overcome many obstacles in the first round of the season after the departure of their main defender Warren Mellie.

Mellie, who is now playing for Red Star Defence Forces, was the captain in last year’s Airtel Cup final where Northern Dynamo faced off against St Louis and managed to pull off a 2-1 win to grab their first ever Airtel Cup.

It was St Louis’ second consecutive loss in the Airtel Cup final.

Northern Dynamo have high hopes for this year’s challenge and coach Nolin told Sports NATION the team are ready to face the challenge head on.

“We are all out to defend our title and we are not expecting the other teams to slack during the course of this contest, so we should not either,” coach Nolin said.

“We are preparing the team by conditioning the players to perform in knockout football in order to be able and retain the title as Airtel Cup champions,” he added.

He also explained that they had to make certain adjustments at the beginning of the season to their defence and it took them a while to get use to it, especially after some new recruits were brought in.

“I believe we have the ability to defend our title and we will have to adjust our training and tactics according to home and away games, which will be a key factor after we qualify,” further added coach Nolin.

The 2018 Airtel Cup is set to begin next week, precisely on July 4 at Stad Linite.

Group A is made up of Côte d’Or, Red Star Defence Forces and La Passe, while Group B features Anse Reunion, St Michel and St Louis. Foresters, Au Cap and The Lions are in group C, while reigning champion Northern Dynamo are in group D alongside Praslin sides LightStars and Revengers.

The competition will start on a home and away league basis where the teams will face each other twice in the group stage, with the top two in each group moving to the quarterfinals which will be a cross knockout.

Fixtures for the competition have not been revealed.

R. R.