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In a scrappy encounter, FC Pune City weren't at their fluent best, but managed to pick up a hard fought 1-0 win away at Jamshedpur FC becoming the first team to score against them.
The goal came in the first half and Pune braved an off-night for their forwards and a late sending off to hold on for the three points in the end.
Here's what stood out from the game:
#1 Jamshedpur's steely resolve is finally breached
Steve Coppell's Jamshedpur had shut out each of their opponents thus far in the tournament leaving their defence as the only one that was yet to concede a goal. That record was broken however on Sunday evening when FC Pune City took the lead through Adil Khan in the 30th minute.
It came off a free-kick; Marcelinho whipped a looping ball into the box that caught a Jamshedpur head before falling to Khan who had made a wonderful run around at the far post to drive it in.
The home side failed to pick up his run and it was a neat finish from the Pune midfielder.
That goal proved decisive in the end and it brought to an end Jamshedpur's clean sheet record and in turn their unbeaten run in the league.
#2 How did the pitch fare?
The last time a game was played here at the JRD Tata Sports complex, the pitch, more than the football was what dominated headlines.
Jamshedpur hosted ATK that night and both managers, Coppell and Teddy Sheringham respectively, were left admonishing the state of the pitch after the game. It was a terrible surface indeed that impacted the quality of the football. Simple passes went astray, the ball was bouncing off the pitch to about knee height and there were entire squares coming off.
Home team coach Coppell raised it once again ahead of this game. While the surface still left much to be desired, it certainly looked like the ground staff had done some work to merit some slight improvement. It took about 65 minutes today for the pitch to start breaking up.
This will continue to be a topic of debate as the season goes on and one wonders what solution Jamshedpur find for it.
#3 Was that offside?
In the 73rd minute of the game, Pune City thought they were in on a fantastic chance to extend their advantage. With Jamshedpur pressing for an equaliser, Pune's defence managed to wrestle away the ball and played a good ball ahead for their striker Emiliano Alfaro.
Alfaro burst forward and managed to get the better of Pune's last defender and had acres of space to run int having just crossed the half-way line. However, he found his run curtailed by the referee's whistle as the linesman had flagged for offside. Well, Alfaro was definitely ahead of the last of Jamshedpur's outfield players on the pitch, but he was inside his own half and you can't be deemed offside in that situation.
Alfaro was through and would have been left with a 1-on-1 against Jamshedpur keeper Subrata Pal, but it wasn't to be.
Fortunately for Pune, it didn't come back to haunt them as they held on for the narrow win, but it was still a bad decision all said and done.
#4 Kaith puts in a confident showing
The goalkeepers at this year's ISL have not exactly bathed themselves in glory with plenty of gaffes witnessed from the custodians thus far.
Subrata Paul almost made another contribution to that at the very beginning of the game when he came to collect a ball, flapped hopelessly and missed it altogether. Luckily for him, it eventually went out for a goal-kick.
In that context, Vishal Kaith in Pune's goal was excellent. He was confident every time he came out to collect the ball. There were no half-hearted punches, but clean gathers from Kaith.
His movement from post-to-post was also very good as his body positioning for the shots that came his way were also spot on. In a game like this, decided by fine margins, a strong goalkeeping performance certainly goes a long way and it proved instrumental for Pune in the end.
#5 Goals scored - 1, goals conceded - 1, games played - 5
Makes for dismal reading, doesn't it?
That's how anaemic this Jamshedpur side is when it comes to scoring goals. They scored for the first time in their last game, they conceded for the first time today. It leads you to wonder how Jamshedpur can climb back into a game if they concede first.
Today, Pune weren't at their best, but they were disciplined. And while Jamshedpur certainly showed more initiative in attack today than in previous games, there were very few clear-cut chances that they fashioned. In fact, Pune could have easily added at least one more on their end.
The question remains how much progress this Jamshedpur side can make in the table by merely grinding out results and nicking in the odd goal. The team does not have players that can create opportunities.
Their unbeaten run also came to an end with the defeat today along with their clean sheet record. How do they respond?
