Kathmandu, September 16:

National league champions Mahendra Police Club (MPC) are all set to leave their mark in the AFC President’s Cup slated for September 20-30 in Pakistan.

Coach Birat Krishna Shrestha and skipper Ramesh Budhathoki are both confident of doing well in the ‘C’ graded Asian countries’ club competition in which Carlsberg MMC and Nabil Three Star Club participated in the earlier two editions.

“We are well prepared and the training also has been good. We are confident to do better than the last edition,” said Budhathoki. Coach Birat Krishna Shrestha hinted the attacking game plan. “We are weak in terms of ball possession,” said Shrestha.

Shrestha is planning to give the scoring responsibilities to skipper Budhathoki and Ju Manu Rai, who will be supported in the midfield by Ananta Thapa, Parbat Pandey, Bhola Silwal and Roshan Karki. Veteran Rakesh Shrestha will lead the defense line along with Rabin Shrestha and Poudel brothers Deepak and Dipendra. Ritesh Thapa will guard the post.

Drawn in Group B, MPC will play their first match against Tatung of Chinese Taipei before taking on Dordoi Dynamo of Kyrgyzstan (September 23) and Khemara of Cambodia (September 25).

AIG Amar Singh Shah is the team leader, while former MPC skipper Anil Adhikari is the assistant coach and Buddhi Gurung team manager. National Sports Council member secretary Jeevan Ram Shrestha and ANFA president Ganesh Thapa, who is also the president of the organising committee, bade farewell to the 26-member team today. The team will leave for Lahore on Monday.