ATK Mohun Bagan played more like ATK than Mohun Bagan from last season …
Kerala Blasters had 69.3 percent possession of the ball in the first half against ATK Mohun Bagan in the first game of the Indian Super League (ISL) season on Friday. Compared to the figures for the 2019-20 season, that’s the highest of any team in the ISL. However, after 90 minutes, the Blasters were on the losing end.
ATK Mohun Bagan looked more like ATK than Mohun Bagan in their first ISL match when Antonio Habas set them up to nullify the threat from the Blasters, and they did really well.
The blasters started with the front foot. They worked very well with the ball and took control of the game from the beginning. Their opponents were a bit taken aback in the first half when Vicente Gómez and Sergio Cidoncha took control of midfield and took passes forward with ease.
But once possession entered the final third, there was no connection to new signing Gary Hooper, who was isolated up front until he was substituted in the second half. Sahal Abdul Samad, who had a free role behind Hooper, was unable to facilitate the kind of transition that Kibu Vicuna wanted in his setup. The 23-year-old’s night turned from bad to worse as he missed the game’s easiest opportunity from five yards in front of goal.
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Roy Krishna also missed an easy opportunity to break deadlock from a corner kick in the opening minutes. Fans can be forgiven if they thought the Blasters would punish that failure given the way they were able to control the game, but in the end, there were very few clear opportunities to brag and zero shots on goal in the entire game for the Yellow Army. .
Krishna made sure not to miss more than an easy chance when Blasters failed to cope with a cut pass from Manvir Singh in the 67th minute he was deservedly punished. The Fijian, who scored 14 goals in 18 appearances last season, scored the first goal of the season with a clinical goal that easily outscored Albino Gomes.
Even after conceding, the Blasters problems in the last third remained unsolved. The nature of his confusion points to the lack of an adequate preseason required by the Kibu Vicuña system. Remember, your title-winning team Mohun Bagan played almost 30 games before putting on an impressive show in the I-League last season.
It’s easy to get carried away, but as Vicuña said before the game, ‘This team will be better next month.’ The defense led by the impressive Costa Nhamoinesu enjoyed more than a few good moments and the team will generally only get better.
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