ISL: ADK lets Kerala get off the hook

ADK 1-1 Kerala Blasters

Atletico de Kolkata faced off Kerala Blasters today at our very own Yuvabharati. Weekend, good number of crowd. Team boss and prince of Kolkata, Sourav Ganguly or Dada present for the occasion. Slight drizzle. Diwali flavour still on. A perfect night for celebration for people of Kolkata. But they were disappointed.

ADK start off well with Jofre, Borje, Lobo operating well. But they were without the services of their regular striker Fikru and also their marquee player Garcia still not recovered from the injury. But that did not seem to bother them. It seems it would be matter of time before ADK would score. And in fact that was the case. A miss pass from Kerala player just let the ball to Jofre in the left wing who served a perfect pass to Borja who let it off for Baljit and he scored by a perfect placement that got better of David James. It rare to see Baljit scoring. It was one such rare night. It was again moments letter when Lobo set up a perfect ball for Jofre which was saved from a timely interception by Kerala defender. It appeared Jofre took much time to shot. It was all ADK in the first half and Subhashis, Kolkata custodian only got touch of the ball in as let as 25 th minute. And there was only 3 shot on goal by kerala in the first half. They had no idea what was going on. Kerala with branch of yesterday heroes never seemed to be getting on with the game. Mehtab is having a off form for a long time.It was Atletico all way until when Hume scored for Kerala against the run of the play. It was moment of lapse by Kolkata defenders. But the way Kolkata was playing never it appeared that they would not be able to score. Kolkata had about 64% ball possession in the first half.

Second half saw Kerala starting to dominate the game. Though the battle was mostly stuck in the mid pitch and Penn trying to dictate terms. The only solution for Kerla available was Penn need to control the game. There was no one else who could do that . Mehtab falling deep and he never really came in the overlap. Kerala enjoyed more ball possession in the second half. And in another surprising decision Lobo was replaced by Masih. Don’t understand the love of Rakesh by ADK management but in noral sense if you want to go for goal you cannot replace Lobo with Rakesh. And before Lobo was substituted he nearly scored from a perfect ball of Jofre, who got the ball from a quick free kick. However Lobo’s shot rattled the bar post and went out. Masih tried hard to get another red card as soon  as he was in the pitch and was lucky to concede only a yellow. In the dying minutes Kolkata should have scored with David James coming out of the box to clear a ball which somehow reached to Jofre in the box and who tried to take a shot but out of excitement he missed the ball. Something suggest that ADK with  many aged players in their rank fails to keep up the momentum for whole 90 minutes. Fikru was missed as Arnal Lliber lackes the ability of playing as a lone striker. He failed to reach the balls supplied to him by the superb midfield.

[Original Source: http://ronylive.in/adk-lets-kerala-get-off-the-hook/]

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About Rony Dasgupta

Kolkata based Rony Dasgupta is a web developer by profession. Since completing his MCA from Pailan College of Management & Technology, he has been associated with many projects. Currently he is working as a project leader in —-. Rony is deeply rooted to Kolkata and its versatile culture. He loves sports, paintings and writing. Rony is a published author and believes in ‘live and let live’ mantra. He likes to keep his surroundings happy and healthy.