ISL: NorthEast United FC 3-0 Chennaiyin FC - 5 Talking Points

NorthEast United, in the space of a few manic first half minutes, put three goals past table toppers Chennaiyin FC, as they notched up their first win in 7 games, with a commanding 3-0 scoreline. It was a day of delight for the partisan Guwahati crowd as NorthEast notched up only their second home win of the season. Durga Boro opened the scoring for NorthEast before Massamba Lo Sambou stepped up with two towering headers to all but knock Chennai out of the contest. As hard as Chennai tried to get back into the game, the NorthEast defense, led by the magnificent Miguel Garcia stood firm. Chennai were left ruing some slack defending, but NorthEast didn’t care, as they picked up a vital win which rocketed them from bottom of the table to 5th place. Here are five of the major talking points from the game.

#1 NorthEast fly off the blocks

At the start of the game, Chennai were a visibly weakened side, especially in defense, with Mikael Silvestre, Gouramangi Singh and Marco Materazzi missing from the starting eleven. Ricki Herbert sensed an opportunity there, and got his side attacking from the word go.

With Massamba, Miguel and Joan Capdevila manning a three-man defense, it allowed the wing backs Boithang Haokip and Zodingliana to bomb forward at will.

Chennai were caught cold by NorthEast’s pace off the blocks, and the first goal, when it arrived, was no surprise. But, there was more than just a trifle of luck involved. Haokip’s cross was straight at Eric Djemba Djemba but the former Manchester United man’s clearance hit Len Doungel and fell kindly inthe path of Durga Boro who kept his omposure to put the ball past Gennaro Bracigliano.

#2 Massamba towers over the rest

That goal from Durga opened the floodgates as far as NorthEast were concerned as Chennai seemed to lose their bearings in defense. First, a silly challenge from Dhanachandra Singh earned NorthEast a free kick, and after that was cleared for a corner, Koke’s cross was brilliantly flicked goalwards by Massamba Lo Sambou and the helpless Denson Devadas could only hook the ball into the net.

The second goal from Massamba, though, involved no luck of any sort. It was once again a very silly challenge from Djemba Djemba, and Koke’s free kick was delivered on a plate for Massamba to climb over Dhanachandra and all but seal the points for NorthEast as early as the 23^rd minute.

#3 Chennai\'s questionable tactics

As much as no credit must be taken away from Ricki Herbert and NorthEast for their brilliant start, some of Chennai’s tactics were rather naive. Jean Eudes Maurice was shunted out to the right flank, when against a three man defense, he would have been much more of a physical threat than Jeje Lalpekhlua or Balwant Singh.

Chennai’s troubles defending set pieces also continued. The problem for Chennai here was a lack of defensive leadership, as Mikael Silvestre sat out with an injury. But again, the tactics were rather questionable, as Dhanachandra was chosen as the man to pick up the giant Massamba on set pieces.

Given Dhanachandra’s lack of physicality, it could have been a much better choice to have Djemba Djemba or Bernard Mendy to mark Massamba.

#4 Chennai look to hit back

Marco Materazzi’s displeasure was clear and he made it show at half time as he took off Jeje and Bruno Pelissari at half time, and brought on Cristian Hidalgo and Jayesh Rane. Chennai were much better going forward in the second half, but there was no end product.

A lot of times, they took shots when setting up a team mate might have been a better idea. Chennai made their desperation evident, but it seemed as though there was a lack of quality. That was understandable given that Chennai were missing their two best attackers in Elano Blumer and John Steven Mendoza.

Also, the NorthEast defense, led by Miguel, were impeccable.

#5 NorthEast hold on

It seemed as the second half wore on, that NorthEast were dropping deeper and deeper into their own half, but Chennai could not take any advantage of that, largely due to some poor decision making.

When Joan Capdevila received his marching orders for a second bookable offense, it seemed as though there was a glimmer of hope for Chennai. But that was when professionality set into the NorthEast ranks. They kept the ball wonderfully, and drew fouls off the frustrated Chennai defenders.