Category: India

[match id=30 match=1]

Guest column by by Yogesh Maurya (Football coach). Today he deconstructs Bengaluru FC’s match against Mohammedan Sporting and talks about the key battle that won the match for the home team

This match was largely about 10 players: 4 Mohammedan Sporting players attacking 6 Bengaluru FC players throughout the match.  The front 4 attacking players for Sporting included the midfielders #8 Penn Orji, #26 Jerry Zirsanaga, and their forwards #9 Josimar D’Silva and #10 Tolgey Ozbey…against the back 4 of Bengaluru FC which included centre halves #6 John Johnson and #4 Curtis Osano, right back #3 Vishal Kumar and left back #20 Keegan Pereira, plus Bengaluru FC midfielders #10 John Menyongar, and at times either #15 Darren Caldeira or #12 Thoi Singh.  Count them up and it was often these 10 players involved in the play as 4v6 and individually as 1v1, 1v2, 2v2, 2v3 and 3v3 battles that decided the game.  When it was all done, Bengaluru FC prevailed, and the reasons reinforce some fairly consistent aspects of this team while revealing some exciting new qualities.

The centre halves:

The obvious first…Johnson and Osano maintain extremely high levels of concentration throughout matches.  It is their intelligent reading of the game with and without the ball, combined with their confidence and effort that leads to them getting to balls first and winning almost all 50:50 battles or tackles.  They rarely make mistakes.  Josimar  and Tolgay were both dangerous and to their credit continued pushing until the last whistle, but lacked any kind of industrious or creative partnership and more importantly, without numbers in support, one always had the feeling it would only be a momentary lapse as happened on the goal by Josimar, that could undo Bengaluru FC.  Josimar’s goal was a well taken header off an excellent cross as he managed to slip between Johnson and Osano with Johnson just misjudging the flight of the ball. No reason to lose sleep over it because really the dynamic duo had an excellent game yet again against a crafty strike force.

The full backs:

In the first half, Mohammedan Sporting attacked primarily down the left flank with success. Vishal Kumar put in a shift but was repeatedly unsuccessful in containing attackers 1v1 leading to several scoring opportunities which Mohammedan Sporting was unable to finish.  Kumar was replaced by #13 Rino Anto in the second half who performed very well, as Mohammedan Sporting found slightly more success in attacking down the right flank against Keegan Pereira who was duly supported by midfielder Darren Caldeira as they attempted to thwart MS attacks which were at times very threatening despite being numbers down due mainly to the 1v1 attacking maturity of Tolgay and the busy buzzing of the playmaker Zirsanga who would eventually be substituted to little effect.

The holding midfielder:

In the first half there was some confusion between Menyongar and Singh in picking Orji up as he positioned himself fairly high up the pitch and was getting the ball in between the lines too easily.  Once the communication was sorted, both players were able to defend Orji as required and took the same understanding into the second half as Orji was forced to drop even deeper to receive the ball. Menyongar did what he usually does…filled the hole in front of the centre halves, kept from over committing himself, and was excellent in finding the free man in transition.

The Man of the Match

For me it was without doubt Thoi Singh who started the match in place of Siam Hangal.  Singh was the busiest player on the pitch, constantly showing for the ball with his team in possession, attacking with pace, making excellent decisions with the ball and doing the dogged defensive work as required.  His intelligently timed runs off the ball often saw him receiving the ball in dangerous areas in between the lines, and he attacked with confidence.  His pace, assembly line work rate, and attacking flare had a massive impact on the match, and I am looking forward to seeing him play more.

Post Scripts:

Counter Attack:

Bengaluru FC continues to show that it is most dangerous on the break. Makes for plenty of excitement.

Indian Strikers:

Sunil Chhetri : Something there sees him slightly out of his usual fine form turning the ball over somewhat cheaply and not yet having the right harmony with Pereira on the left.  Only one way to get out of it…keep working extremely hard and stay positive. He has the class.

Robin Singh : Crowd favourite is improving for sure and hard done not get a penalty after such wonderful defensive work and a great individual run into the box.
Beikhokhei Beingaicho : Has somewhat quietly been one of BFC’s best performers this season…attacking with pace and creativity, and always doing the defensive work asked of him.