The Yellow Army will play three pre-season friendlies in the coming days.
Indian Super League (ISL) outfit Kerala Blasters will play their first pre-season friendly match against Kerala United on August 20, 2021. The match will take place at the Panampilly Nagar ground in Kochi, Kerala at 4:00 pm.
Additionally, the club will play two more pre-season friendlies – against Kerala United once again on August 27 and against Jammu & Kashmir Bank FC on September 3. The venue and kick-off times will be same for both matches as in the first game against KUFC.
Fans can watch each of KBFC’s three pre-season matches as mentioned above, through the club’s official YouTube channel.
“We are excited to get on the ground. We want to showcase our talented players in the land of such enthusiastic football fans,” Ivan Vukomanovic, the head coach of Kerala Blasters said.
Preparations going on ahead of ISL 2021-22
As of right now, the first-team squad of the Yellow Army is training under Vukomanovic and his team prior to the forthcoming 2021-22 season of the ISL. The players are all in a bio-bubble to prevent any potential outbreak of COVID-19 among them. Other protocol related to the pandemic are also being followed by the club.
Further, all KBFC players completed a quarantine period before joining the team. With regular health check-ups scheduled for them, the club aims for a safe and healthy season.
Recently, assistant coach Ishfaq Ahmed also joined the team after a short delay caused due to personal reasons. The Kochi outfit’s foreign signings Adrian Luna and Enes Sipovic have already checked in to the team hotel. They are currently undergoing a mandatory quarantine before getting ready to join their teammates in training.
As a result, they are certain to miss the pre-season friendly on August 20. However, fans may get to see them in action in the later games.
Three other players who are likely to miss the games are Sahal Abdul Samad, Rahul KP and Jeakson Singh, who are with the Indian national football team in their preparatory camp ahead of the SAFF Championships.