News Analysis India

Tag: Blasters

  • Robbie Fowler justifies East Bengal’s decision to send players out on loan

    In pursuit of their first win in the Indian Super League (ISL), Robbie Fowler’s East Bengal are set to take on Chennaiyin FC on Saturday at the Tilak Maidan Stadium, Goa.

    The Red and Golds are struggling in their maiden ISL season and have just two points from their first six matches. They came agonisingly close to registering their first win of the season in their last game against Kerala Blasters but Jeakson’s last-gasp equaliser spoiled their party.

    Coach Robbie Fowler, though, claimed that conceding last-minute goal against Kerala Blasters has not affected the players’ mentality and he is hoping to get a positive result against Chennaiyin

    “The moral of the team is really good. At times we are unlucky and it is unfortunate that you concede a goal in the last minute but our lads worked really well. We had lots of chances and we could have won the game quite convincingly but football is like that. There are ups and downs and we have had plenty of downs at the moment but the morale of the lads is brilliant and hopefully, we will have a lot of ups starting the next game,” said the East Bengal gaffer.

  • Jackson saves Kerala from defeat, stops East Bengal on draw

    Jackson Singh’s goal in injury time helped Kerala Blasters prevent East Bengal from their first win in the seventh season of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) and held them to a 1–1 draw. East Bengal retained a 1-0 lead in the first half with a goal goal from a Bakrey corner until injury time, but Jackson missed the first win of the season by scoring a goal in injury time to save Kerala from defeat. This is the second draw in East Bengal’s six matches. The team now has two points and has now reached number 10 in the table.

    The team has also lost four. Kerala has been drawn for the third time in six matches and is now at number nine with three points. Kerala has got three defeats so far. In the 13th minute, Kerala’s Bakery corner unfortunately gave the ball into his own net. It seemed that Nishu Kumar, playing his 50th match in IASL, also had a hand in this suicide goal, but this corner goal gave East Bengal a 1-0 lead within the first 15 minutes. Six minutes of extra time was added to the injury time and Jackson scored with an assist from Sahal Abdul Samad to equalize Kerala 1–1 and prevent East Bengal from registering their first win of the season.

  • Toothless Kerala Blasters will need time to settle in

    Kerala Blasters had 69.3 per cent possession of the ball in the first half against ATK Mohun Bagan in the Indian Super League (ISL) season opener on Friday. Compared to figures from the 2019-20 season, that is the highest figure by any ISL team. However, after 90 minutes, Blasters were on the losing side. 

    ATK Mohun Bagan looked more like ATK than Mohun Bagan in their first ISL match as Antonio Habas set them up to nullify the Blasters threat – and they did it really well.

    Blasters started on the front foot. They worked the ball around really well and took control of the game early on. Their opponents were nonplussed for a bit in the first half as Vicente Gomez and Sergio Cidoncha took control of the midfield and picked out forward passes with ease. But once the possession entered the final third, there was no connection to new signing Gary Hooper who was left isolated up front right up until he was substituted in the second half. Sahal Abdul Samad, who had a free role behind Hooper, couldn’t facilitate the kind of transition that Kibu Vicuna wanted in his setup. The 23-year-old’s night went from bad to worse when he missed the easiest chance of the match from five yards in front of goal.

  • ATK Mohun Bagan wins opener against Kerala Blasters, Roy Krishna scores first goal of ISL 2020

    ATK Mohun Bagan got off to a good start in the 2020-21 Indian Super League (ISL) season with a narrow 1-0 win over Kerala Blasters at the GMC Stadium, Bambolim on Friday.

    Roy Krishna’s 67th-minute strike was enough for Habas’ team to secure three points in the club’s first-ever ISL match. It was a cagey start as both teams adopted a safety-first approach. Yet, Bagan could have had their noses in front had Krishna not scuffed his shot at the far post after latching on to a corner whipped in by Hernandez early on in the game.

    In their new avatar, ATK Mohun Bagan kicked off the seventh season of the Indian Super League on a high, defeating Kerala Blasters by a solitary goal here on Friday. Fijian hitman Roy Krishna, who was ATK’s top goal scorer with 15 goals last season, struck the all important goal after a 67 minute deadlock to give the all important three points for the green-and-maroon brigade.

    The Yellow Brigade playing with a heavy defensive lineup of 4-2-3-1 managed to thwart ATKMB throughout the first half but after the hour mark they left a loose ball as the Fijian International pounced on it with a calm and composed finish. All eyes were on the 131-year-old legacy club Mohun Bagan as they were making their ISL debut following their ‘marriage’ with three-time defending champions ATK.

    The match had an interesting sub-plot as Kibu Vicuna, who had guided Mohun Bagan to their fifth I-League title last season, sat in the opposite dugout in KBFC jersey, while the most successful ISL coach Antonio Lopez Habas was at the helm of ATKMB. Habas named a predictable 3-5-2 lineup with their star signing Sandesh Jhingan helming the defence in his first outing after a lengthy injury layoff of more than 12 months.

    ATKMB had a dominant first half and made some early inroads with Roy Krishna missing an early chance, even as KBFC enjoyed more ball possession in the first 45 minutes.