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It was never going to be an easy game for once, for a team playing at home. This was pretty much something that was a given when FC Pune City took to the field against the travelling NorthEast United FC team at the Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi. The NorthEast United team which is in the top four of the league faced FC Pune City which was at the bottom. Classic tale of mismatches of sorts and yet tantalising exciting for the same reason.
Pune came into the match, its third home game on the trot, with a win and a loss respectively. NorthEast on the other hand came to Pune after a hard fought draw against the Delhi Dynamos. Perhaps it was this classic mismatch of sorts that worked in Pune's favour when they pressed forward from the opening minutes of the game right till the fag end to win the encounter by a solitary goal.
Coach Franco Colomba had made an interesting change to the line up with both Lenny Rodrigues and Ivan Palacios coming back to the starting line up. Also with Belardi taking a hit in the previous game against Kerala, Arindam Bhattacharya made it to the starting line-up as the goalkeeper for them.
Ricki Herbert who has shown tremendous faith in Rehenesh Paramba, gave him a start yet again as the goalkeeper ahead of Alexandros Tzorvas. Joan Capdevila and Miguel Garcia were part of the defence for NorthEast United.
Even though Pune came into the game as the underdogs, egged on by their supporters, they started the game in an attacking fashion. As early as the second minute of the game, Pune ran into the NorthEast box where a timely interception by Aiborlang Khongjee denied them a goal in the early minutes of the game. Thereafter both the teams began to trade jabs in the midfield with the occasional blistering run by the two sides.
For Pune, Israil Gurung and Kostas Katsouranis made impressive runs into the NorthEast United box time and again. Do Dong Hyun and Koke on the other hand tested FC Pune's Arindam Bhattacharya and their defence line.
Pune pressed forward; NorthEast countered
In terms of statistics there are interesting comparisons that could be drawn between the two teams. For instance in the opening 25 minutes of the game Pune nearly dominated the attacks with almost 70 percent of the total which eventually reduce down, but the whole of the first half was dominated by them. A lot must be said about the supporters of the home team, who kept cheering them on and kept the tempo of the game flowing.
Outside the cheering however it was the second half that saw the tempo of the game rise. Primarily after John Goossens and Dudu Omagbemi came on for Bolado and Trezeguet for Pune. There were more attacks on the NorthEast goal, with Rehenesh being tested aplenty with teasing balls in from Gurung, Dudu and Goossens.
The Dutch forward let loose a screamer in the 66th minute only to be denied by the outstretched hands of Rehenesh. While Pune attacked right till the very end, their ball possession percentage had dropped to 46 in the second half.
The tactical midfield battle
Franco Colomba got his tactics right against the threat on the counter of the NorthEast United players, particularly Koke, Durga, Do Dong Hyun and Mtonga. And he ensured that it was stopped short with an arsenal of his own.
Ready to attack right from the beginning and ensuring that the defence clicked were two of the main tasks before them and they got it spot on. While the battle raged on in the midfield, it was Pune that kept pressing on, searching for that elusive winner.
Right from delightful little back heel passes by Dudu to subtle tackles by Magliocchetti and Cirillo it was all there. The extra edge that Pune needed to push on was what was missing for NorthEast United. Compared to Pune, there were sporadic attempts by NorthEast to go forward through substitute James Keene and Koke which mostly resulted either in clumsy long balls or swift tackles by the Pune defenders.
John Goossens breaks the deadlock
It is no surprise that Rehenesh was chosen as the Hero Man of the Match for the game for the sheer number of saves that he made for NorthEast United. But it was the 87th minute where, for once he failed to stop the ball. And it happened in interesting fashion too. In the 86th minute Dudu took a long range volley which was deflected out by Rehenesh for a corner.
While nothing came off the corner, but the Nigerian once again took a shot on goal from just outside the box, which ricocheted off the crossbar straight out to Goossens, who made no mistake heading the ball past a diving Rehenesh sending the crowd into delirium.
Perhaps the highlight of the match, outside the goal and the 7600 plus crowd of course, was coach Franco Colomba who ran onto the pitch to celebrate the goal along with his team. And that was not just it. He was involved in an altercation with one of the NorthEast United players post which referee MB Santosh Kumar had to ask him to go back into the dugout.
Nevertheless it was interesting to see a coach get involved deeply into the game, especially when his team went into the game as underdogs and suddenly found themselves in a position to win the game. Ricki Herbert on the other hand looked far more composed and reserved.
The win catapulted Pune into the fourth sport right behind NorthEast United, with seven points from five games.
