THE BLOG BY CPD FOOTBALL | The World of Indian football and beyond by Chris Punnakkattu Daniel

Kerala Blasters FC record first win of the season

Pune City FC v Kerala Blasters FC

Pune City FC v Kerala Blasters FC

FC Pune City clashed with Kerala Blasters FC in a Hero Indian Super League (ISL) game at the own backyard today.

The hosts opened the score sheet 15 minutes into the game when a quickly taken free kick by John Goossens found an unmarked David Trezeguet in the box. The former French international kept calm and cool to volley home the ball past Kerala Blasters FC goalkeeper David James.

CS Sabeeth missed a golden opportunity to score the equaliser for Kerala Blasters FC when Iain Hume set up the Indian striker with a wonderful through ball into the box. Sabeeth missed the sitter as his shot got deflected by Bruno Cirillo for a corner. But Sabeeth had reason to cheer seconds later as Stephen Pearson sent in the corner kick which found Cedric Hengbert’s head before Sabeeth put the ball into the back of the net.

The two teams went into the half-time break with a 1-1 draw after an evenly balanced game at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium.

Kerala Blasters substitute Penn Ikechukwu Orji hit the target with a fine side-footed strike from the edge of the area in the 65th minute to turn the game in favour of the visitors.

FC Pune City couldn’t pull one back to claim at least a point against Kerala Blasters, while the visitors failed to add another goal to their tally as Orji and Hume wasted their chances.

Kerala Blasters FC won the match 2-1 to record their first win in the inaugural season of the Hero Indian Super League.

2014 Hero Indian Super League
at Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium, Pune

FC PUNE CITY 1-2 KERALA BLASTERS FC

GOALS
1-0 David Trezeguet (15′)
1-1 CS Sabeeth (41′)
1-2 Penn Ikechukwu Orji (65′)

LINE-UPS

FC Pune City
25 Emanuele Belardi (50′ 27 Arindam Bhattcharya) – 13 Dharmaraj Ravanan, 5 Bruno Cirillo, 4 Daniele Magliocchetti, 12 Anupam Sarkar – 11 Ashutosh Mehta, 26 Merajuddin Wadoo, 21 Kostas Katsouranis, 8 Tapan Maity (54′ 3 Kwang-Il Park) – 10 John Goossens (63′ 20 Iván Bolado Palacios), 17 David Trezeguet [C]

Unused Subs
2 Andres Felipe Gonzalez, 9 Davide Colomba, 14 Israil Gurung, 18 Saïdou Mady Panandétiguiri, 19 Pritam Kotal, 23 Dudu Omagbemi, 24 Lenny Rodrigues

Kerala Blasters FC
70 David James – 5 Nirmal Chettri, 32 Colin Falvey, 2 Cedric Hengbart, 15 Sandesh Jhingan – 6 Potsangbam Renedy Singh (25′ 11 Ishfaq Ahmed), 14 Mehtab Hossain [C] (44′ 88 Milagres Gonsalves), 25 Stephen Pearson – 10 Iain Hume, 9 Pedro Gusmao (62′ 18 Penn Ikechukwu Orji) – 12 CS Sabeeth

Unused Subs
24 Sandip Nandy – 3 Jamie McAllister, 7 Sushanth Mathew, 21 Godwin Franco, 22 Raphaël Romey, 23 Avinabo Bag, 27 Andrew Barisic, 29 Saumik Dey

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee

Assistant Referees
…, …

Fourth Official

BOOKINGS

Yellow Cards
3′ Tapan Maity (FC Pune City)
5′ Nirmal Chettri (Kerala Blasters FC)
43′ Sandesh Jhingan (Kerala Blasters FC)

Yellow-Red Cards
none

Red Cards
none

MAN OF THE MATCH

Iain Hume (Kerala Blasters FC)