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Mumbai City FC and ATK played out the second goalless draw of the Hero Indian Super League at the Mumbai Football Arena on Saturday. Both the teams had an equal share of possessions throughout the game, but only 5 shots were on target.
The defenders stood tall at most occasions, and the strikers got little space to breathe. Moreover, both the sides were content with the draw and showed no urgency to grab the winner. The stalemate keeps Mumbai City FC at the fourth position with 14 points from 8 games. ATK, on the other hand, remain on the sixth position with 11 points from 8 games.
All that being said, there were a lot of positives and negatives from the game. Without any further ado, we present before you the five talking points of the game between Mumbai City FC and ATK.
#1 Long ball game halting the viewership of the game
This year's ISL has been the most favourable for the strikers as a staggering total of 109 goals have been scored in the 38 matches played so far. All the other venues saw an average of more than two goals scored per game. However, Mumbai remained behind.
Unlike the fluid one-twos and quick passing between the sides, the teams resorted to long balls. They failed to break the deadlock and sadly the game ended up being a snoozefest.
Couple it with the 30 fouls conceded by both the sides collectively and numerous stoppages due to injuries, the fans had very little action to keep them invested. The I-League encounters earlier in the day were more intriguing from the viewers' perspectives, to say the least.
#2 Amrinder Singh stands tall against ATK's whipping crosses
While Mumbai City resorted to long balls and diagonal crosses to kick the ball out of their own half, ATK used it in the final third and set pieces.
Every time ATK won a free kick or a corner, and Manuel Lanzarote stepped up to deliver a whipping cross, Amrinder Singh either found it to be a catching practice or positioned himself perfectly to parry away the danger.
One particular instance in the second half deserves a special mention. At the 70th minute, Manuel Lanzarote curled in a beautiful free kick from the left side of the pitch and three ATK players were lurking from behind. However, Amrinder Singh came out of his line and dived full-stretch to deny the goal-scoring opportunity to the visitors.
His positioning has been superb this season, and that is the reason he is the second-choice goalkeeper for the Indian national team.
#3 Everton Santos fouled continuously
Mumbai City FC conceded 17 fouls in their game against ATK. A minimum of ten of those seventeen was on Everton Santos as Anwar Ali and Subhasish Bose shoved him off continuously to derail his momentum.
In the initial moments of the game, it looked as if the ATK defenders were having a tough time keeping the Brazilian in check. However, as the game grew, we understood that it was the plan all along.
The resulting free-kicks from Manuel Lanzarote didn't pose any danger, and Amrinder cleared it out with ease as mentioned before.
The lack of a central striker can haunt ATK in the long run. On the bench, they have only Hitesh Sharma and Eli Babalj. If the newly-signed Australian fails to find his scoring boots in time, this strategy will be utilized by the remaining teams and ATK might never score from the run of play.
#4 Mumbai City FC fail to capitalize on the vulnerable Ankit Mukherjee
While ATK's left-wing comprised of the experienced Balwant Singh and in-form Ricky Lallawmama, the right wing was made of the inexperienced and vulnerable Komal Thatal and Ankit Mukherjee.
The Islanders could have overloaded their left wing but chose to go through the centre or the right instead. Mumbai City FC did capitalize on the naivety of Ankit but fumbled in the finishing.
At the 35th minute, Rafael Bastos dispossessed the 22-year-old and squared it to Santos. Ultimately, they only succeeded to get a corner out of it. At the 52nd minute, the Brazilian again got the better of Santosh Trophy silver medallist, but his shot sailed curled across the crossbar.
This was the first full-time debut of the youngster, and he looked totally off-colours. Had the Islanders targeted Ankit, they could have walked away with three points.
#5 Brilliant show by the Indian internationals
Alongside Amrinder Singh, Subhasish Bose and Pronay Halder, too, held their ground and did their defensive duties well enough.
The ATK defensive midfielder thwarted the long balls of Mumbai City FC and kept Paulo Machado and Rafael Bastos in check. Moreover, whenever Mumbai City FC tried to penetrate through the vulnerable ATK right wing position, Pronay covered it up.
Subhasish Bose was rightly adjudged the 'Hero of the Match' for his valiant performance in the left-back position. The closest Mumbai City FC came to breaking the deadlock was at the 76th minute when his 35-yard long-range effort was thwarted above the crossbar by Arindam.
Both Subhasish and Pronay regularly feature for the Indian football team. They just need to maintain their spirited performance, so that India produces a respectable show at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup in January.
Here is Subhashish's piledriver we were talking about:
