Half Time Report: No-holds-barred goalfest see Delhi & Kerala in a back-and-forth contest
Starting Line-Ups:
Delhi Dynamos FC - Subhasish Roy Chowdhury, Serginho Greene, John Arne Riise, Hans Mulder, Zodingliana Ralte, Florent Malouda, Gustavo Marmentini, Adil Nabi, Shylo Malsawmtluanga, Anas Edathodika, Sehnaj Singh
Kerala Blasters FC - Sandip Nandy, Sandesh Jhingan, Peter Ramage, Bruno Perone, Rodrigo Arroz, Mehtab Hossain, Cavin Lobo, Ishfaq Ahmed, Chris Dagnall, Antonio German, Joao Coimbra
A GOALFEST in the first half saw Delhi Dynamos and Kerala Blasters take turns in breaching each others' defences. The back-and-forth contest paused for lemon break with Carlos's boys trailing 2-3 to bottom-table Kerala.
Roberto Carlos chose to rest a lot of his first-choice players as he came into the game with a semi-final berth already secured. He fielded Subhasish Roy Chowdhury at goal, and gave starts to the likes of Serginho Greene and Shylo Malsawmtlunanga. He also brought John Arne Riise, Gustavo Marmentini and Adil Nabi back into the starting eleven. Crucial players like Robin Singh, Richard Gadze and Vinicius started from the bench.
Terry Phelan, meanwhile, made a wholesale change to the Kerala Blasters side that lost 1-5 to Goa at the previous game. He brought in Sandip Nandy at goal, and drafted Bruno Perone, Rodrigo Arroz, Mehtab Hossain, Cavin Lobo, Ishfaq Ahmed and Joao Coimbra into the starting line-up.
Like the match on the previous night, this game too began with both teams drawing blood early on. 7 minutes in, a lofted ball from Florent Malouda saw Gustavo Marmentini run a great length to reach it, then putting a one-touch finisher on it. Delhi were 1-0 ahead.
And then Kerala turned around and got even. A ball from Peter Ramage came into the Delhi box, Anas Edathodika decided to try a low header to clear the ball. But he completely misjudged the ball and it reached Chris Dagnall who was standing right behind him. He tapped it in with ease. 1-1.
Two goals within the first 10 minutes, and yet the match was still warming up. Soon, a corner kick taken by Mehtab Hossain got punched into his own goal by Subhasish. But while he was in the air trying to catch the ball, Dagnall had slightly nudged him which caused him to lose control over the ball. The referee spotted the interference and called it a foul, disallowing the goal.
But Kerala were looking dangerous and soon they got their goal. Antonio German passed the ball to Joao Coimbra who sent a beautifully swinging ball into a corner of the post and sent Kerala 1-2 ahead.
Florent Malouda immediately sought an equalizer but his run was botched by Sandesh Jhingan who brought him down and earned a yellow card.
By now, Antonio German was becoming more and more active up front. He fed Dagnall a good ball that saw the latter take a good left footed shot at the goal but Subhasish kept it out.
But German got his name on the scoresheet soon after. Mehtab Hosain delivered the ball into the box and German put a great left footed shot, taken at a difficult angle, straight into the net. Kerala were now very much in front, with Delhi trailing 1-3.
But the Dynamos had one more trick left up their sleeve that made the game come back alive. Within a minute of German's goal, Shylo sent a great lifted pass to Nabi whose header directed the ball towards the net at full force. It was 2-3, and the no-holds-barred goalfest of the first half ended there with the match promising to become an even harder-fought contest in the second half as both teams look willing to go all in for the win.
