MATCH PREVIEW: Buoyant Delhi Dynamos look to consolidate as Pune enjoy home run
FOUR BACK TO BACK HOME GAMES to start the campaign is any coach's dream come true, and Pune City have benefited well from it so far. They started their ISL 2 journey by beating Mumbai City 3-1 and bested NorthEast United by a solitary own goal. They will look to continue their winning streak and return to the top of the table later tonight when they take on Delhi Dynamos.
For Delhi, the win against Chennaiyin at home came as a welcome relief after their season began with a 0-2 loss away to FC Goa. Away games always pose an extra challenge in a congested tournament like the ISL and they will be looking to capitalize on the newfound defensive stability that saw them successfully defend a an early 1-0 lead for the rest of the game.
For Pune City coach David Platt, the first game against Mumbai City was a gamble. With four crucial Indian players still away on national duty, he played a number of players out of position in what looked like a rag-tag team bound to struggle. But they won convincingly, thanks to a memorable combo of Israil Gurung and Tuncay Sanli that ran riot in the final third.
In the next match, thanks to their marquee player Adrian Mutu being fit, Platt went for a more stable formation, allowing the likes of Manish Maithani, Nicky Shorey, Roger Johnson and Lenny Rodrigues to settle back into their usual positions. This made for a tighter defence but benching Tuncay Sanli saw their attack lose much of its sting. Not that Mutu played particularly bad, but he was definitely not as good as Tuncay. The latter's combo with Israil Gurung, too, was absent as the young winger was taken off long before Tuncay was brought on.
That is an anomaly that Platt will look to solve. Even if it means benching their marquee and starting Sanli instead. They did it against Mumbai City and it paid off. A win by an own goal is never a thing to be satisfied with and David Platt knows to expect a tougher competition from Delhi Dynamos than bottom-table NEUFC. In the pre-match presser he had this to say about the Dynamos,
“Good team, good players. Some dangerous individuals. We will expect a difficult game. But we respect every opposition that we will play, there’s no doubt about it. But our focus is on what we could achieve ourselves. We want to dictate how we want to play and hopefully allow the opposition to worry about us.”
What Delhi marquee player-coach Roberto Carlos will be worried about is making his forward line work against Pune City. After playing two matches, they remain the only team that is yet to score from open play. The 1-0 win they had against Chennaiyin FC came courtesy a penalty goal.
The defence is working well though. The narrow 5-3-2 formation that allowed Romeo Fernandes to run riot in the first game was corrected by switching to a better spread-out 4-2-3-1 in the next match. John Arne Riise has been marshalling the defence like a sergeant major. And goalkeeper Sanjiban Ghosh has been the find of the season so far.
But the payoff from the frontline is yet to arrive. And it's not that the players have been especially bad. Richard Gadze, Gustavo Marmentini and Chicao have been decent. Shylo Mama, the lone Indian in the Delhi attack in the absence of the likes of Robin Singh and Sehnaj Singh, has tried his best too. They have even hit the woodwork a couple of times. But haven't managed to score.
But Carlos is looking at things more positively. He takes heart from the win against a strong side like Chennaiyin and wants to go for the kill against Pune City,
“Our goal tomorrow is to make them play harder. They have good players, but if my team wins tomorrow we are going to stay in the top three. This is the most important thing. I know the difficulties I will face here but my team is also very strong after our last win against Chennai.”
There's a good chance Carlos will keep his starting lne-up unchanged from the last game. He understands Pune City are a tough opposition, but wants his players to approach this game with the same belief that carried them to victory against Chennaiyin,
"... I am trying to show them and teach them the winning mentality that I have since I have started playing. When you win, a lot of times you don’t see your mistakes. But for example in our loss against Goa, we saw our mistakes and we are improving. My team have goals. To be in the top four and then two and then finally become the champions. That is our goal.”
There's no doubt that both teams have their flaws. But ISL is a tight competition and differences tend to get blurred. Which is why, when these teams take on each other later tonight, they can do so with high hopes and big dreams.
Probable Starting Line-Ups:
Pune City - Steve Simonsen, Nicky Shorey, Roger Johnson, Dharmaraj Ravanan, Manish Maithani, Lenny Rodriguez, Didier Zokora, Fanai Lalrempuia, Yendrick Ruiz, Tuncay Sanli, Israil Gurung
Delhi Dynamos - Sanjiban Ghosh, Zodingliana Ralte, John Arne Riise, Anas Edathodika, Souvik Chakraborty, Chicao, Hans Mulder, Shylo Mama, Florent Malouda, Gustavo Marmentini, Richard Gadze
TFG NEWSLETTER: Exclusive and Stimulating articles delivered Free into your Inbox every day! Subscribe to TFG TIMEs
