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I-League: Mumbai FC Continue Recovery As JCT Fall Further Behind
JCT failed to score again, but Mumbai FC scored twice to win their second game in a row..
08-Nov-2009 7:44:38 PM
As expected, the match started at a slow pace, with both teams not throwing enough men up front to attack. Neither team impressed, as many passes were misplaced, and the ball was mainly being played in midfield.
The game was so slow, that the two goalkeepers had nothing to do until the 21st minute, when Karanjit Singh had to make a regulation save from a Kamaljeet Kumar effort.
JCT had their first shot on goal midway through the half, when Lalchhunmawia's cross saw Sahni control it brilliantly, but his left-footed shot was too tame to trouble Lihaz Koya. On the half hour mark, Sahni's 25-yard long ranger was punched away by Koya, with Pawan sending the rebound into orbit.
Five minutes later, Sahni, the top Indian goalscorer in the I-League, brilliantly found his way past Nelson Cardozo and laid the ball off for Penn, whose shot was at least 15 feet wide of goal.
Thereafter, the game retreated into its shell, as neither side could create any chances, and the half ended with the tie still goalless.
Six minutes into the second half, Alex Ambrose, who came on for Nelson, had a half-chance, when Bashiru's cross from the right was headed wide by the substitute, despite under no pressure from the defenders.
The very next minute, Karanjit Singh denied Anas an opportunity to head home from a Kamaljeet Kumar corner kick. Around the hour mark, Alex Ambrose and Nishant Mehra were the guilty parties, as they couldn't make the most of Darren Caldera's swerving ball into the box.
However, Mumbai FC managed to take the lead from a Noel Wilson free kick in the 63rd minute, as his grounded delivery from 30 yards found Abhishek Yadav inside the box after a mistake from Sarabjeet Singh, and the skipper did the hard work and found Bashiru, who tapped the ball in to make it 1-0.
Thereafter, the two coaches introduced the substitutes, as Khalid Jamil wanted to slow the pace of the game, while Parminder Singh introduced fresh legs to boost their attacks.
However, JCT's hopes of making a comeback were quashed in the 81st minute, when Gurwinder Singh needlessly brought down Dane Pereira inside the box. Abhishek Yadav stepped up to take the penalty, and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to the pleasure of ecstatic Mumbai FC fans.
The match drifted to a close, and ended as Mumbai FC's first win at home, as the team keeps improving with each game, and once again it was Abhishek Yadav and Bashiru Abbas who did the job for them. Meanwhile, JCT will have to re-think their strategies as their form has been dipping since the first two rounds.
Both JCT and Mumbai are on 9 points, with the Punjab side having a better goal difference.
Rahul Bali
Inside Goal.Com
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