A quick wrap up of the ISL match between Atletico De Kolkata and Goa. To start with let me mention this might look a Kolkata vs Goa match to most but for arch East Bengal supporter it was a Dempo vs East Bengal fight with
plenty of members from both the sides. And so as it turned out it was a heated duel between two teams on the pitch and two teams in mind-set. For people who don’t understand the difference let me put it in this way . East Bengal supporters are no less biased towards Dempo as they are towards Mohun Bagan. With Mohun Bagan though you have a love hate relation with two enemies living in same room together and baring the derby and football discussions, you find plenty of things to connect. But with Dempo its totally a love lost arrangement. Their supporter feels they have stopped
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the Bengal supremacy in football and Bengali supporter counters with the statement that 5 Ileague wins is no match for achievements more than century. Yes for fights like this we need Mohun Bagan supporters by our side Any mutual Facebook pages or groups with supporters from all over India you will see its straight two way fight. Its Bengal vs Rest of India. And frankly in India you got only Goa to counter Bengal challenge. Ok now you may add BFC . But they just had their first year and its long way to go.
Moving on, ADK finally fielded Lobo. A Goanese boy, who now plays for East Bengal form the last couple of years and he is a sweet heart of East Bengal crowd and he is popular in Goa as well. This was the man who won the last Derby between East Bengal vs Mohun Bagan. And is veteran for many battles and is in ominous form. He is by far the best attacking midfielder in India at present. And we were pretty upset when he was not in the team for last three matches and specially the last match when Garcia
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was out with hamstring and ADK stuff got Rakesh Masiah. Who conceded two yellow cards to leave the field with a red. I mean really ? You can put Rakesh before Lobo ? And this man answered it all.
It was not the match with very skill full football, with passing and deaf touch , but it was a battle of nerves and heated exchanges. Goan players trying hard to get nominated for Oscars by diving at chance and Borje countering that with a great play acting. Sort of like making a statement that you might be Tom Cruise but I am Al Pachino. The It was then turn of a duel between Fikru and Gregory. They were head butting each other during the match and in the half time. Lucky Fikru just escaped with yellow. But that something you expect in Goa vs Kolkata match and for Indian football lover it’s not new.
The match started with Lobo sending a neat ball to Borje who shoot it wide. Minutes later Lobo took a shot outside the box and it went wide. Goa then made good runs with Ranty and Santos upfront. But the battle was more in the mid pitch with Goa enjoying lions share of ball possession, something you expect with ADK who likes opponent to reach to their box and then they launch counter attacks. Denzil Franco limped of the pitch and as he was preparing to get replaced ADK conceded the goal with a powerful shot from Santos. It appeared a fully fit Denzil Franco would not have allowed that in. And there are suggestions as well that had Subhashis been playing he might have saved it. Denzil was replaced by Sanju, another strange decision. Sanju has never played as a right back . He is a midfielder, and we had Abhishek Das or Khabra sitting in reserve and it was interesting change as we saw Sanju taking up the right mid-field and Baljit going deep down.From striker to right back. But guess that was not the first strange decision of ADK management. Garcia no doubt was missed. Though Lobo was brilliant but Garcia, Borje, Jofre who know each other for ages has a different chemistry altogether. According to me it would be a deadly combination with both Lobo and Garcia playing together with one as
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central midfielder and one as withdrawal striker.The second half saw ADK fighting for equaliser. But Fikru was tightly marked today it was not his night. Goa had more ball possession and it seems they might run away with the game but one man had other plans. Cavin Lobo playing for first time in the tournament equalised in 72 minutes when Fikru back flicked a ball to him and he scored in a similar fashion in which Santos scored the first. 8 minutes latter he managed to silence the crowd when he scored the next one and give 3 points to Kolkata who are not top of the table with 10 points from 4 matches. To add as a post script Pires did disappoint and the match was mostly dull. ISL might be a good entertainment but it’s hard to see how can it manage to develop Indian football with retired legends who generally walks ff the pitch and no such superb foreigners.
Tags: Atletico De Kolkata ISL Kolkata beat Goa
