#2 Disallowed goal
The refereeing throughout this tournament has been a massive talking point and just before the break, the officials were in the spotlight again. A good spell of Kerala Blasters pressure resulted in Duckens Nazon getting two chances but he missed both of them.
But then, after a little scrap on the edge of the area, the other Haitian Kervens Belfort robbed Ruben Rocha off the ball and was through on goal. Belfort put the ball in the back of the net and wheeled away in celebration with CK Vineeth. But that was short-lived. The assistant referee had spotted Belfort’s use of his arm while dispossessing Rocha and the decision was spot on. In the end, that didn’t matter as Belfort got the winner for Kerala.
Many players and coaches through the tournament have complained of the woeful standard of refereeing throughout this year’s tournament. But on this occasion, credit must be given where it is due. It was not an easy spot and the linesman got the decision perfect.
Even right in the dying embers, Marcelinho went down in the box, claiming a foul by Jhingan but nothing was given and as was the norm on the day, that was the right decision too.
The referee Pranjal Banerjee and his assistants had a fabulous game even otherwise as he kept a vice-like grip on proceedings and did not make any major mistakes. He handled the tempers of the players pretty well too.
