(By Rony Dasgupta)
Ok, the grand celebration got kicked away in style at YuvaBharati, Kolkata, the capital of Indian Football. After the initial Bollywood hit numbers by Priyanka Chopra the team woners made centre stage with their Marquee Player. First it was turn of our beloved dada, Sourav Ganguly with Luiz Garcia for Athelico De Kolkata and they were followed by the rest of the teams.
Image: indiatoday.intoday.in
Frankly as an arch football fan was looking forward to the match. There was a hype created. Posters all around, advertisements of Live Football. Before the analysis would like to confirm like most of the Bengali I am supporting ADK. Reasons being 1) The name Kolkata 2) Association of our home town hero, Dada Sourav Ganguly with the team. If these two points are not enogh 3) Being an die hard East Bengal fan, supporting ADk which has good numbers of present and ex-East Bengal lads.
Moving on as said, being a supporter I enjoyed the win. And there was few High moments as well but as a football fan and someone who has keenly followed Indian Football might be from mothers womb, I can safely conclude that I have seen better matches played in I league and Federation cup. Matches like Dempo vs East Bengal or BFC vs East Bengal are absolute pleasure even in these days when Football is fading in India. Long story short I did not witness anything out of the world sort of things but yes I certainly agree that few of the movements were spectacular.
Image: NDTV.com
To begin with the highlight of the match, Rahim Nabi the stand in skipper for Mumbai side got an early yellow even on the 2nd minute of the play and minutes later he was carried off the pitch and was substituted. Once a prolific utility player is seemingly suffering from lack of match practices for near about 2 years. As any Indian football fan is aware of how he was hit by a stone in a Ileague derby was hospitalised and missed most of the matches then in the next season did not got any club since the major India clubs with held itself from signing players who committed themselves to ISL .
Moving on Athelico dominated the proceedings with Garcia sort of leading in a role of pivot to midfield and striker. Fikru was playing the role of lone striker with Garcia playing bit from behind and operating with Borja. Garcia provided some killer through passes and Baljit should have scored from one of them. But he did what he is being doing for East Bengal for last 4 years. He missed an one to one chance. Yes you need to appreciate Subhroto Paul for his timely outing but a striker need to score those. However he wasn’t playing conventional striker today .. He was playing much deeper in the mid field. A new role assigned to him by Athelico coach, I guess. Another through by Garcia was ruined by Fikru for not able to judge the offside trap. However it was soon that Borja, provided an accurate through pass to Fikru whomade good use of it and lobbed it over advancing Paul to give Kolkata the lead. Which should have been done by Baljit. After the goal Kolkata players were bit relaxed and ried to move on with the flow. Luiz Garcia was a legend of our youth but he has retired and he lacked those paces but he did not lose his visions. His through passes are deadly still today. He did not played for Liverpool, Barcelona and Athelico De Madrid for nothing ..He had the qualities and those are visible even today. He can totally play in some Indian clubs and will do good. Mumbai tried to slow down the match and played passes among themselves. They also bought Dika, another blue eyed boy of Indian football to play deep down so that they can regain possession. They did and had more possession in the first half. But in football its not enough. Its important to get the possession in the right places.
Image: english.manoramaonline.com
2nd half was much better for Mumbai when Moritz came in and he made some decent run which looked threatening and Arnab Mondol and Denzil Franco commited some mistakes at time out of nervousness but veteran like Josemi made sure no harm was done. Athelico did not allow much penetration inside the box and also Subhashis Roy Chowdhury was superb.. He made a tremendous save out of a recociation that came all of a sudden to him. It was also the battle of 2 best goal keepers of India Subhashish Roy Chowdhury and Subhroto Paul. Both were great with Subhashish king of gripping and Paul emperor of outing. Also in the midway 2nd half Borje scored a blinder. A long ranger placed perfectly to avoid the plams of the diving Paul .. Just inch perfect and a treat to watch. He too had 23 caps for Real Madrid, was a product of Real Madrid Academy n he showed that. 1 assist + 1 gem of a goal. He is my man of he match. Even down by 2 goals Mumbai tried to put pressure. There was also some movements on the other half. And keeping his trend Baljit headed another perfect cross from Garcia right into Paul. Many thought Baljit could had a hattrick today. But he left without making a difference in the scoreboard in the 78 minute to get replaced by Sanju. Kolkata management must think of using him more to get good results. Garcia was replaced minutes before the whistle and Arnal made into the pitch and he scored in the dying minutes of the match from a Fikru pass. He celebrated opening his shirt and got a yellow.
Also special mention of Sthanzl. He did everything .Preventing Garcia, running the whole pitch penetrating in the opponent box. But none fruitful. Athelico will need to build on the Borja-Garcia-Fikru combination in the upcoming matches to get the momentum going. Mumbai missed Anelka.
Image: Feverpitch.in
Talking of other factors, foreigners seemingly had problems with the astro turf with dew in it. The humidity also gave them tough time. Age of the players are matter. The game was played in slow pace and mainly in the midfield. Athelico were seemingly better side , but they relied on counter attacks so Mumbai got more ball possession. Indian players who played in the match were seemingly inferior to their foreign counterparts. It’s a good platform for them to learn something.
All in all an entertaining evening. My Player of the match – Borje
About the Author: 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.
(Original Source: http://ronylive.in/isl-opening-athelico-de-kolkata-vs-mumbai/)
Tags: Athelico De Kolkata ISL ISL opening match Mumbai
