TAL Season 3 (Division 2): Gameweek 1 Review

Grasshoppers FC began the season with a bang scoring the fastest goal in TAL history

Division 2 kicked off on October 3rd with only four matches taking place on GW1. Two matches (Al Fateh v FC Bengal and FC Brunton v Netbusters FC) have been postponed to a later date. Grasshoppers got off to a good start with a routine victory over Lawless. Joras battled it out with FC Kudlu in an entertaining 5-goal thriller while Titans came from behind to beat Sparta. Title contenders Athlos United and Diablos played out a goalless draw with neither side able to find the finesses to break open the opposition defence.

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FCB Sparta 1 – 2 Titans FC

The opening game of Division 2 was saw Titans FC turn around an early deficit to pick up all three points. Praveen opened the scoring in the 6th minute for Sparta but Yeshwanth Mekala pulled back level with a long range screamer. Anirudh KD, the man of the match, found the net in the second half with a wonderful solo goal to give his team the win. Both teams had good chances throughout and the game could have produced many more goals. Both teams look like they can cause the top dogs problems and it will be interesting to see how the new boys shape up.

Scorers:

Praveen Murali 6’ (FCB Sparta)

Yeshwanth Mekala 32’ ; Anirudh KD 49’ (Titans FC)

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Grasshoppers FC 3 – 0 FC Lawless

Ryesh Venkatraman scored a goal directly from kick off (5 seconds – TAL Record) to give Grasshoppers a very early lead. Lawless were stunned by the long ranger and it showed on the pitch as they conceded 2 more within the first third of the game. Ryesh picked up a second while a curler from outside the box by Divij Palegar killed the game off. Lawless had good chances but failed to convert any, but will take solace from the gritty display in the second half.

Scorers:

Ryesh Venkatraman 1’, 10’; Divij Palegar 17’ (Grasshoppers FC)

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FC Kudlu 2 – 3 Joras

A 5-goal thriller was played out between Kudlu and Joras, which saw the latter come out on top. Kudlu came back from 2-0 down via a brace from Akin Jarule to equalize with less than 15 minutes to go but a late goal from Varun saw Joras snatch all three points. Earlier, a cross by Achyuta DS was met by Sivaram to open the scoring while an unlucky deflection saw Kudlu concede a second, an own goal. Kudlu showed great heart in coming back from two goals down and will feel they deserved a point.

Scorers:

Akinwumi Jarule 26’, 43’ (FC Kudlu)

Sivaram Natarajan 9’; Rajeev Sasidharan 19’ (OG); Varun Vijayraghavan 54’ (Joras)

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Diablos FC 0 – 0 Athlos United

Diablos FC and Athlos United played out a goalless draw with not much on display. They played out a high scoring game last season (7 goals) but defence won over offence with both teams strategically set up at the back. Both teams came into the season as title contenders but dropped points early on which means the top of the table is open for business which will put pressure on these two teams. Although the core of both teams returned, new faces in their midst means they will get better as the season goes on.

Standings (After Gameweek 1)

Pos.	Name	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
1	Grasshoppers FC	1	1	0	0	3	0	3	3
2	Joras	1	1	0	0	3	2	1	3
3	Titans FC	1	1	0	0	2	1	1	3
4	Athlos United	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
5	Diablos FC	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
6	FC Brunton	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7	Netbusters FC	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	Al Fateh	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9	FC Bengal	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
10	FC Kudlu	1	0	0	1	2	3	-1	0
11	FCB Sparta	1	0	0	1	1	2	-1	0
12	FC Lawless	1	0	0	1	0	3	-3	0