Odisha FC 2-0 Chennaiyin FC: 3 Reasons why the hosts won comfortably | ISL 2019-20

#2 Individual mistakes haunt Chennaiyin FC

Valskis (C) skied his spot-kick over the bar

At the start of the 2019-20 ISL season, Chennaiyin FC represented a team in absolute turmoil. John Gregory couldn’t buy a victory and subsequently, was given the boot as the Marina Machans hoped to resurrect a faltering season.

In the process, Owen Coyle was brought into the fold as the Englishman was looked upon as the ideal candidate to provide short-term and long-term success. Since then, Chennaiyin FC have improved massively and have seemed a team that has chalked out its attacking and defensive plans well in advance, in stark contrast to the account they had been giving of themselves in the opening months.

During that wretched run of form early, the southern outfit also had to deal with several of its players turning in abject displays and indulging in elementary errors. And, rather, unfortunately, that trend reared its ugly head on Monday too.

The visitors started the game well and weren’t accorded any shaky moments at the back at the outset. However, that changed rather swiftly after the 20th minute as they produced a series of individual mistakes.

In the 21st minute, Vishal Kaith was let off enormously after he found himself in no man’s land when dealing with a corner off the right flank. A few minutes later, Chennaiyin had the opportunity to nudge ahead but Nerijus Valskis skied his spot-kick into the second tier.

And, that duration of patchy play was embodied in the 37th minute when they produced two gaffes in quick succession.

After Aridane drilled the ball across the box, Kaith inexplicably missed the ball completely, although he did have Nandhakumar for company. Once the cross was past the keeper, Laldinliana Renthlei seemed primed to hoof the ball to safety.

Yet, rather comically, the right back swiped at thin air, meaning that Jerry M was presented an open goal to commence the scoring.

Thus, a couple of slip-ups had meant that Chennaiyin had fluffed their chance to get into the ascendancy. And, even though they improved in the second half, they were left ruing those blunders before the break.