Interview with Oscar Bruzon - Part 1

Interview of Oscar Bruzon by ABCDFootball.com's Debraj Banerjee

We take immense pride to bring to you the interview of another i-League coach and this time its Sporting Clube de Goa's Spanish Coach Oscar Bruzon, whose team have become one of the major force to reckon with, competing for the i-League title and have recently finished runners up in Federation Cup 2014. In a long fruitful conversation with the fun-loving Spaniard we tried to discuss on vivid topics which made the interview very special. Since the interview was a long one, we decided to bring it in-front in multiple parts. This one is the first part and we tried to cover his career with Sporting Goa, Practice Sessions, Transfer Strategies and some other interesting chapters.


Debraj Banerjee: Briefly tell us about your venture with SC Goa till date.

Oscar Bruzon, Head Coach,
Sporting Clube de Goa

Oscar Bruzon: It was 4th of December 2012 to be precise, when I joined SC Goa. I was lucky to get a talented bunch of players to nurture. All the guyz enjoy the practice sessions and thus try to improve their basics day by day. I can tell you that there is still a lot of room for improvement. Having made small groups of friends, practice is always fun-filled and most importantly their mentality to try to better themselves everyday, that is how we are working on our improvement line. 

Debraj Banerjee: When you joined Sporting, You must have chalked out certain plans. Did those plans go accordingly?

Oscar Bruzon: I accepted the Sporting post as a challenge for me to make the team play a good brand of football. Right from my first day, I saw Sporting players working extremely hard in every practice session with lot of dedication and that has not dried down even now. I believe I have made them a better team as a group.

Debraj Banerjee: Currently 2nd in i-League with 16 games(After Round 16 of i-League). Can sporting go the full distance to win the i-League?

Oscar Bruzon: Though there is still a long way to go, but I am very certain that Sporting Clube de Goa have emerged to be one of the tougher sides of Indian Football and one who can beat any team in the league on any given day. Match after match, I see my players improving themselves with better understanding between each other which in turn positively affects the game play on the field. For winning the i-League we need to maintain our consistency level in the remaining games.

The main focus is always on i-League. Secondly, the calender is tough and hence 11 players are not enough and we require at least 15-20 players. For my team, I am very happy with the overall fitness level and squad availability. I sure would give fringe/junior players a chance whenever possible.

Table Showing Sporting Clube de Goa's impressive home record in the Airtel i-League. Note: The data is only valid till round 16 of i-League.

	Played	Home Games	Home Wins	Home Draw	Home Win%	Points Per Home Game
Pune FC	13	6	4	1	66.67	2.17
SC Goa	13	6	4	1	66.67	2.17
Bengaluru FC	14	8	5	2	62.50	2.13
United SC	14	6	3	1	50.00	1.67
Churchill Brothers	13	7	2	1	28.57	1.00
Mohun Bagan	14	8	2	2	25.00	1.00
East Bengal	11	4	1	1	25.00	1.00
Shillong Lajong FC	14	9	2	5	22.22	1.22
Dempo SC	14	5	1	2	20.00	1.00
Salgaocar FC	13	6	1	3	16.67	1.00
Mohammedan SC	13	6	1	3	16.67	1.00
Rangdajied United	14	7	1	4	14.29	1.00
Mumbai FC	14	9	1	5	11.11	0.89

Debraj Banerjee: Secrets to SC Goa’s good home record?

Oscar Bruzon: There is one thing which is very important to note here is that, till date every match we have played at Duler. The ground condition is very good which enabled us to have good practice sessions which in-turn came out in the form of our terrific home record. 

Debraj Banerjee: Most of the stadiums in Goa have artificial turf installed. Is it good for football?

Oscar Bruzon: For the betterment of football, I believe infrastructure plays a huge role. The installment of artificial turfs helps in that by a long way. Depending on the quality of the turf, we can come to different conclusions. Low quality turfs would impart injuries and heat gets accumulated which makes it impossible to play good quality football as players tend to struggle. New generation turfs which are made of rubber are sure to provide better services to the players. Even its good for younger generation with more number of artificial turfs to practice on, rather than muddy grounds especially during the rainy season, which would do more bad than good for improving the players. Young players could concentrate more on improving their skills on the ball rather than thinking about the uneven bounce.

Debraj Banerjee: We have seen a lot inflow of Spanish players in the Sporting side. Are they able to adjust to the Indian climate?

Oscar Bruzon: Its true that foreign players do need time to adapt to new climate, some take few weeks while some takes one or two months at most. For us its not a problem to worry about as most of them have adapted nicely. Also, we practice at morning 7 AM or 8 AM, which is not very early and thus all of them are comfortable. The major problem to worry about is the match timing, which is not good for playing football. The best time to play football is under the flood lights, but not all matches could be played under flood-lights considering the various constraints in Indian Football. Anyway, things are improving and lets hope that it gets better.

Debraj Banerjee: SC Goa has been known for displaying good brand of football primarily focusing on short passing. How did you manage to inject it to the club?

Oscar Bruzon: Firstly, that is the brand of football I like and enjoy the most. Secondly, it takes time to implement the style of play on field from the practice grounds. It requires proper structural approach and different strategic decisions. For example, during hot conditions, we sometime plan to conserve more energy and let our opponents run more, while on the second half, we try to break their defence with more pressing and try to attack through the gaps that they tend to create as fatigue comes into play.

In my case, I was lucky to get a lot of talented Goan players in my squad whom I just needed to give proper direction. In India(outside Goa), on a broader scale I believe new talents having more physical dominance are recruited, while in Goa, I see many players having good technical aspect, on a broader scale off-course. Physique is something which can be imparted more easily than technique.

Debraj Banerjee: Do you have the complete freedom to select your players from the transfer market or the management have the upper hand?

Oscar Bruzon: In Sporting, both of the entities are involved in the transfers. We plan our requirements accordingly and have a meeting together, before we finalize any transfers. About our transfer strategies, we discuss our needs and try to get as much information about the player as we can with videos, references etc. We try to give our local Goan talents as much chance as we often can, because Goan talents are the base of the team.

This is the first part of the interview and we hope that you must have enjoyed it. We thank Oscar Bruzon for giving us his valuable time and sharing his views on our questions.

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About Debraj Banerjee

Hi, I am Debraj Banerjee from Adra, West Bengal. A keen follower of Indian football and always an optimist that the game will get the recognition it truely deserves. What we ask from you is your support and one day the dream might turn true. Fingers crossed for Indian football. Cheers!

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