MATCH REPORT: Ten man Kerala Blasters settle for a point at home against Mumbai City
KERALA BLASTERS came into the game under some pressure as they failed to score a single goal in the three games played. Mumbai City FC, having lost to Pune City in the previous game, would have wanted to put the last loss behind with a positive result tonight.
Kerala made a two changes and it worked in their favour. Berbatov was placed in the midfield and that gave him considerable freedom to work the ball. He had been man-marked for both thre previous games, cutting out him getting space. Hume was the second big change. He was dropped to bench and Sifenos started in his place up front.
The changes immediately got its reward in the first 14 minutes of the game. As a good cross from Rino Anto from the right flank saw Sifenos getting ahead of all players and scoring KBFC’s first goal in three games. Jhingan, in the 21st minute was alert to clear a dangerous through ball from Emana.
Minutes later Goian was in the attacking third for Mumbai and sent a good cross for Everton. His attempt was missed and Jorda was there to follow up to the ball was cleared by the defence. Amrinder made his first real save in the 27th minute as Jackichans’s cross was fired in by Vineeth.
In the added minutes of the first half, Jacki misses the chance to double Kerala’s lead as a poor attempt from him saw the ball sail over the goal. The half time break had the home team with a slender one goal lead.
The second half started with a chance falling for Pekuson and he missed to hit the target in a crowded area. Mumbai really should have equalised about ten minutes into the second half when Santos was through on the left of Paul’s goal and struck the ball sweetly to take a nick of Paul’s foot and rebound back off the post and into the hands of the Kerala keeper. The second saw Mumbai making good moves to reach the KBFC box but not further than that. But the intent was there to get something back. It did arrive from the likeliest of sources. Santos, who had been dynamic in the game, crossed from the right and found Balwant Singh in the box, ahead of his marker and he guided the ball in the net for the equaliser. With ten minutes remaining in the game, both teams tried to find the winning goal. But Kerala were in for a shock. CK Vineeth who had not been a great influence on the game, withing a span of 10 minutes picked up two yellow cards and Kerala had to play with a man less with about 5 minutes.
The away team had decided they were content with a point as they made a defensive substitution in the injury time. Amrinder went to ground and invited some angry words from the home team players. But 1-1 it was to end the game. Kerala with another draw but this time scoring a goal finally. Mumbai missed to take the few chances and looked content with a draw away from home.
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