A large gathering of coaches along with foreign players in the NSL this time
The Nepal Super League (NSL) is starting on Saturday without even getting close to what should have been discussed on all sides. A big tournament of Nepali football has reached the fans in a much slower manner than the pace it should have taken before it started.
The passion and vigor that this competition has shown since its inception has been a bit of a sellout. What can be done, the more this competition progresses, the more people will know about it.
There have been two editions of this competition so far. The winner of the first one was, Kathmandu Razors. The champion of the second was Lalitpur City FC. These two teams will face each other in the opening match. A month and 25 games later, the tournament will have another winner. Will it be these two teams Kathmandu and Lalitpur or will another third team come forward? In all this background, this competition can be analyzed with the help of some characteristics.
is a great feature of Nepali football in recent times. When the competition starts, there is no way to claim that this team will be the champion. Despite this, all the teams won by themselves, they don't forget to claim that their team is better. Almost the same was seen in the pre-match conference held on Friday about the tournament. What they also know very well is that the competition is open, everyone has an equal chance.
Butwal-Lumbini strong?
Again saying that one team is somewhat different from the others. This is Butwal Lumbini. What this means is that it has all the makings of a champion. This team is definitely strong, at least on paper. The reason for this is that as many Nepali players there are members of the national team. Like Manish Dangi, Eric Bisht, Suman Shrestha, Bimal Pandey to Deep Karki. Maybe Kathmandu is stronger after this? Dhangadhi FC too?
foreign players will be decisive
One fact is certain. This tournament will be won by the team whose foreign players will play well. Also, it is certain that foreign players will dominate in this tournament. Half of the players in the field will be foreigners. In this case, the foreigner who scored the goal, the foreigner who created the opportunity and also the foreigner who defended it. In all probability, this tournament will be the decisive performance of foreign players. As many foreign players have come, they are also good to some extent.
Goalkeepers as much as foreigners
In any one area, if a 100% foreign player will be decisive, it will be in the goalkeeper. Out of the seven participating teams, only one team has a strong possibility of fielding a Nepali player as their first choice goalkeeper. That team is Butwal-Lumbini. Deep Karki is in the team. National team captain and goalkeeper Kiran Limbu is not playing this tournament. Many people are also interested in this. This time NSL has neglected our goalkeeper, there is no doubt about it.
Gathering of good coaches
One of the most notable aspects of this year's NSL is the gathering of good coaches. Only three of the seven teams have Nepalese coaches. Suman Shrestha, Pravesh Katuwal and Naveen Neupane were lucky in that sense. But they are not pro-licensed trainers. The remaining four foreign coaches are very experienced and seasoned. There is no doubt about it. Like Patrick de Wilde from Kathmandu, Simon Grayson from Lalitpur, Juwan Manuel from Dhangadhi and Pushpalal Sharma from Butwal-Lumbini.
a Chang weakness
This time there are some aspects of NSL that are worth criticizing. It is considered a weakness. First, the competition was very short-lived. A team will play 6 games in the league stage. Such a tournament is nothing, it is just like two Gold Cup tournaments in Mofusal combined. TMS is also not applicable on that. That is the FIFA Transfer Matching System. The most important fact is that it will benefit Nepali football in the long term when it is highly dependent on foreign players.
