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Coach signals the set-piece routines, but I decide in the end: Bengaluru FC's Edu Garcia

Bengaluru FC's Edu Garcia says only he decides what kind of a corner or free-kick he should play out to his teammates

By Aravind
Bengaluru FC's Edu Garcia celebrates after scoring against Mumbai City FC (Image courtesy: ISL Media)

Bengaluru, November 23: Edu Garcia, Bengaluru FC's set-piece specialist, revealed it's only he who decides what kind of a corner or free-kick he should play out to his teammates after considering the assistant coach's suggestions from the touchline.

Winger Garcia was BFC's final signing ahead of the Indian Super League. But he was also their first goalscorer in the league when he struck in the 67th minute against Mumbai City FC last Sunday at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium.

Garcia, Chhetri strike for BFCGarcia, Chhetri strike for BFC

The goal came off a corner, the ninth one for BFC. Garcia played the corner short to Udanta Singh, ran behind the young Indian winger, received the ball back and then struck from the edge of the box to the near post to open the scoring for Bengaluru FC. They won the game 2-0 after Sunil Chhetri struck in injury time.

Till then, Garcia had experimented with various corner-kick routines. He struck two to the near post, to a charging player, hit a few more to the melee in the middle and tried to touch the far post on a few other occasions.

Asked how he plans his corners, Garcia said: "Carles (Cuadrat, the BFC assistant coach) is the set-piece boss here. He makes sure that we work on our set-pieces in the training too. We practice a lot of variations on both free-kicks and corners. In the first half, he asked me to take short corners because he noticed that they (Mumbai City FC) had tall defenders and they could command the box. But I refused to listen."

Garcia conceded that he should have played it short early in the game, noticing that Mumbai had not stationed any defenders around the corner flag. "In the second half, he continued telling me the same and I finally gave it a chance," Garcia, a former Real Zaragoza player, said. "For the corner that we scored from, I saw there was no one (from the Mumbai team) outside the penalty area. And Udanta was close by. So I played him, and he gave it back to me. I think I had enough time to take a shot at the goal. I am happy it went in."

BFC players keep gesturing before any set-piece and even shout code words like 'first', 'second' etc to signal the way they want the set-piece to be played. However, Garcia says he decides depending on the situation on how to play out the set-piece. "It's very crazy," he said. "There are codes for some set-pieces, but I can't tell. It's not just the coaches, even my teammates keep yelling. 'First..' (first post), 'Second...' (second post), 'Point...' (penalty spot) and so on. But when I go up to take it, it's up to me. I make the signal using my arms."

Asked how he decides where to play the corner at, Garcia said: "It's in the game that you notice that they (opponent) don't have a marker on the first post or on the second, and accordingly we decide. It's about making the most of their weakness."


Enjoying the city

Garcia says he doesn't consider the ISL move a step down in his career. After all, Garcia, 27 and at his prime, only featured in Segunda Division matches for Zaragoza and he looks at the BFC stint as an opportunity to achieve something big.

"I like to live in the moment and it's very good," he said. "It's a good opportunity for me to explore something new. I don't think about the future. For me, it's the present that matters. Let's be in the moment, enjoy it and week see what the future has in store. I am focused on Bengaluru FC and this season."


In India for love

Garcia added that his wife was a big factor in his decision to finally move to India. If not for her approval, he says he might not have moved here.

Amazing experience, wonderfull place. TAJ MAHAL 🇮🇳👌🏼

A post shared by Edu Garcia (@edugarcia90) on

"The most important person in making this decision was my wife," he said. "When I told her about the possibility of coming here, to India, she was all in. She never said anything that would suggest otherwise. I spoke to coach Albert Roca too. He told me about the city, the country, the team here. His views about things here were very important in the decision because he's the coach and it's very important for me.

"But my wife being on board with this was very important too. If she would be like 'Oh, no. why India. I don't want to go,' it would be difficult. She's here and is in love with Bengaluru. We are very very happy."

Story first published: Thursday, November 23, 2017, 20:13 [IST]
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