Half Time Report: Carlos & Anelka on the defensive in a cagey game with few chances
Starting Line-Ups:
Delhi Dynamos FC - Toni Doblas, John Arne Riise, Hans Mulder, Zodingliana Ralte, Florent Malouda, Seminlen Doungel, Souvik Chakraborty, Sehnaj Singh, Anas Edathodika, Richard Gadze
Mumbai City FC - Subrata Pal, Lalcchuan Mawia, Darren O'Dea, Frantz Bertin, Kingshuk Debnath, Sampath Kuttymani, Selim Benachour, Cristian Bustos, Sony Norde, Sunil Chhetri, Fredric Piquionne
A HALF OF CALCULATED GAMEPLAY saw Delhi Dynamos and Mumbai City enter the break goalless.
The coaches were wise enough to bow out of the action after the performance they put on in their respective previous games. Apart from himself, Roberto Carlos benched Francis Fernandes and Robin Singh. The three were replaced by Seminlen Doungel, Souvik Chakraborty and Adil Nabi. Nicolas Anelka also dropped out, taking down with him Pavel Cmovs, Subhash Singh, Juan Aguilera and Ashutosh Mehta. To replace them, in came Frederic Piquionne, Sampath Kuttymani, Cristian Bustos and Kingshuk Debnath.
The half was a skillful contest of near equals that maintained a level of crispy combativeness with constant end-to-end barrages of counters. Early on the home side moved to threaten as a Hans Mulder ball found Souvik Chakraborty. He scooped it towards young Adil Nabi, the forward from West Bromwich, but it did not reach him.
They moved up again a few minutes later but Doungel's pass to Nabi found him offside.
After a off night against Atletico de Kolkata, Sony Norde was his old creative self once again as he maneuvred his way around the left flank. Sunil Chhetri was also getting into the thick of things, combining with Benachour to set things up for Piquionne a couple of times.
A corner kick taken by Norde got cleared but came straight to the Haitian winger. He sent the cross in which Bertin got a shot on, but it hit a defender and went out.
Souvik was having a busy night dealing with advances from Piquionne and others. He was also doing his bit to run the supply line to the midfield. His ball to Doungel led to Malouda go deep into Mumbai territory and earn a corner.
Delhi were consciously keeping more of the possession, often passing around safely among themselves, in order to keep the visitors' attackers from gaining any sort of rhythm.
Towards the end of the first half a good pass from Piquionne led to a header invading the box which Chhetri was waiting to receive but Anas Edathodika intercepted it. Delhi quickly rose in counter but Mulder's shot missed the crossbar by inches.
The half ended 0-0 with none of the teams looking too dangerous, both coaches choosing to play a calculated game, eager to not be the first one to concede. Although Carlos had talked a lot about wanting 3 points from here, he may not be too disappointed with a draw here, considering his team lost to Mumbai City in the reverse fixture.
