EASILY THE BEST football displayed by these two teams in the Indian Super League; FC Goa and Bengaluru FC, will face each other tomorrow (November 30) in Goa.
Two out of two wins for the team from Bengaluru in their maiden season in ISL. FC Goa won their first against Chennaiyin FC and lost their next against Mumbai City.
Style of play
Bengaluru FC - Albert Roca has been in charge Bengaluru FC since last season and led them to a runners-up place in the AFC Cup last season. Even with the dismantling and re-assembly of his squad entering the Indian, not much has changed for the liking of the coach. He was able to get back part of his core team players through retention and the ISL Draft. Roca opts for a build-from-the-back approach and uses short passes in the midfield combined with a lot of wing play. The players in the midfield try to disallow ball passing through the central area.
FC Goa – The Spanish, Sergio Lobera has brought a lot of freshness in FC Goa's game. The back line is very calm on the ball and works their way out of danger with relative ease. Hasty clearances do no good to any team. This team has one of the strongest and most creative midfields in the ISL. This combination of a composed defence and dynamic midfield cannot be taken lightly.
Getting through
Bengaluru FC play compact and disallowing space to the opposition players. At times, they go in for a high pressing game. But the high press is probably not going to be useful against FC Goa as the Lobera's defence is capable to wriggling out of trouble. Roca will hold that backline solid to prevent opening up gaps for Goa's midfielders.
FC Goa have shown they can be good in the central part for the pitch. This means we will see a lot of central mids dropping off to receive the ball from the defence and spreading to the wings. The back line of FC Goa will need to keep an eye on the cross-half long balls emanating from the backline of Bengaluru. Forward players can be useful to force short and square passes.
Final word
The game is expected to see few mistakes (unless Kattimani repeats his feat for third time in a row). Ball-possession will be the order of the day. The team that controls the play will be hopeful of creating more chances from the game. Bengaluru would want to take a win and sail ahead to a healthy lead headway in the league. FC Goa are looking to learn from their mistakes. Benglauru FC are not the side that FC Goa want to expose their weaknesses to.