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With rain pouring down at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kerala, Jamshedpur FC took on Kerala Blasters in the 48th match of the tournament in hopes of getting back into the top 4 of the league standings.
Both sides came to this match on the back of a nil-nil draw against NorthEast United FC and Chennaiyin FC respectively and were desperate for a win in this match.
Kerala Blasters FC, having not won a single home match this season had a lot to care about as they ended their three-match losing streak with a draw in the previous one and faced a desperate situation at eight points in nine games.
Jamshedpur FC, on the other hand, looked to better their win record which is just three in 10 games.
Even though they have lost just one game, they have lost 12 points in six drawn games, the most by any team in this season of the league.
Both the teams started the match with much caution to avoid any injury during the game. However, if not for the rains, the injury did hit for both sides as Jamshedpur’s Micheal Soosairaj had to be subbed off because of a pulled hamstring in as early as the 12th minute of the game.
The other injury again came in the first half as Blaster’s Keziron Kizito pulled a muscle and had to be replaced by Courage Pekuson in 40th minute.
The first breakthrough came in the form of a penalty for Jamshedpur FC which was converted by a calm finish by Carlos Calvo in the 66’ minute of the game.
An equaliser came in 11 minutes later by Seminlen Doungel who poked the ball into the net amid a lot of confusion in front of the goal.
Even with a fair amount of chances during the match both the teams failed to add up to the goals column and the match ended in another draw in the competition.
With that, both Jamshedpur FC and Kerala Blasters FC stayed at their respective places in the table and have much to worry about going into the second half of the season.
Here are the 5 Talking Points of the game.
#5 Micheal Soosairaj’s Injury
Jamshedpur FC received a massive blow early on in the match as winger Micheal Soosairaj had to be subbed off because of a pulled hamstring.
In the 12th minute of the match, Micheal Soosairaj felt some discomfort and consequentially sat down on the pitch while holding his leg in the run of play. Eventually, after his treatment by the doctors, it came to a conclusion that it’s a hamstring injury and that Soosai was in no condition to play a further role in the match and was replaced by Jerry.
Soosai has been a key man for the men of steel this season and his presence till the full 90 could have been pivotal in terms of pulling out on a result for the visitors.
In the post-match press conference Coach, Caser Ferrando did reveal that it will be until January at least that Soosai can make a return to the squad.
Jamshedpur FC will be very disappointed to loose Soosai as they have already lost a star performer in Cido who is also not available till the end of the year.
The good news for Jamshedpur FC is that they play only one match before the new-year to Delhi Dynamos FC at home.
#4 Doungel shows his class
The talented Indian midfielder showed his class in the match with a crucial equalising goal for the Kerala Blasters in the 77th minute of the game.
Having played 10 matches in the season for Kerala the midfielder was yet to find the back of the net for them this season and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Doungel was transferred to the Kerala-based side from NorthEast United FC where was one of the reputed goal scorers for the club.
He was the joint highest scorer with Marcelinho and also the first to score a hattrick for the club. Kerala had brought in Doungel in hopes of delivering the same for their side and he showed some signs of it in the match.
Leaving the goal, he also had an otherwise good game as he looped in some crucial tackles and a couple important interceptions during the match.
Overall both Doungel and Kerala would be hoping to turn things for themselves in the remaining of the fixtures.
He was adjourned the man of the match for his performance.
#3 Controversial Penalty Decision
One of the things that this season of the Indian Super League has been highly criticised about is the refereeing decisions.
One such moment came in yesterday’s match when Jamshedpur FC was awarded a penalty off a Dheeraj Singh foul on Tim Cahill.
In the 65th minute of the game, Tim Cahill was positioned in a free space in the Kerala half and received a long ball from the Jamshedpur backline.
Cahill found himself in the clear for a potential one on one with the keeper to which Keeper Dheeraj Singh responded by putting in a rash tackle on Cahill just outside of the box.
Even though the spot of the tackle was hard to tell whether it was inside or outside the box but from the looks of it it looked a freekick and one would have expected the decision to be tilted towards the home side considering the benefit of the doubt.
The referee had a discussion with the sideline referee and adjourned on the set piece to be a penalty and not a free kick.
Carlos Calvo took the penalty with much composure, giving Jamshedpur FC the lead.
#2 Brilliant Saves
Even with the lack of goals, the game did offer some brilliant goal-line saves that could have cost the match for either side.
The first save came from Memo in the 34th minute when he was quick to position himself to stop a Kerala counter to go inside the goal.
On trying to get a hand to a cross Subrata Paul had left an open goal for Seiminlen Doungel to shoot which he eventually did, only to be blocked by Memo who was agile enough to stop the shot from going in from a very short distance.
The second save came from an unlikely hero in Tim Cahill in the 76th minute who defended a similar goal-line save like Memo’s to keep Kerala at bay.
Even though both the keepers had some brilliant moments in the game one has to applaud the lounging save of Dheeraj Singh at the dying moment of the game which could probably be termed at the “save of the match”.
Mario Arques received a ball off the last kick from a corner which he deflected by a powerful header towards the goal.
Dheeraj was quick with his agility and jumped to the left to deny Arques’ ball from going inside the net and possibly saving the match for Kerala.
#1 Manjapadda boycotting the match
The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium which otherwise bleeds passion during an ISL game was uncharacteristically empty for the night.
Fan group Manjapadda called out their agitation against the lack of quality football being displayed on the pitch by not turning up for the game.
The Kerala side has started this season with their worst performance of all time and has failed to turn the tides under Coach David James so far.
The fans have received some disappointing football at home with Kerala not even winning a single game at Kochi this season.
Considering that, yesterday’s match could well be an alarming sign for the team management and for the entire of ISL and the problem needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
Kochi can well be termed as one of the Cathedrals of Indian Football and what it looked from observations could well be Kerala’s lowest attendance of the season or probably in all of ISL Seasons.
It was equally sad to see a banner being put up stating “Supporters, not customers, we deserve better” by the fans.
Also, considering German World Cup winner Lothar Matheus being present at the ground it was a sight that nobody wanted.
