ISL 2014: How the Kerala Blasters got their first ISL win

David James and his Kerala Blasters team were lounging in the hotel lobby at around 4 PM on the day before their match against FC Pune City. Half an hour later, Nirmal Chettri walked into the area for an interview — talking without any time constraint — he was relaxed, as was part of the squad when they walked towards him near the poolside — one of them teasing him ‘zyaada matt bol’ (don’t talk too much). It was at this time that we learnt that the Blasters weren’t training on the day before the match. On the same day, at around 6 PM, the home team trained at the Police Ground. It’s customary for teams to train for about an hour on the eve of a match — Kerala though, decided it was not needed. They came to Pune at the back of a hard-fought draw against Atletico de Kolkata in Kolkata on 26 October. On the same day, Pune had beaten FC Goa 2-0 at home. Cut to match-day — Pune lost a one goal lead to a hard-pressing, dogged and energetic Kerala team that fought back to win 2-1 . At the post-match press conference, we heard contrasting opinions. [caption id=“attachment_1780745” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Park (R) was brought on to nullify Hume’s threat down the right. ISL[/caption] “Playing every three days is very hard — today’s result shows it. We used up a lot of energy in the previous match — physically as well as mentally. This result will teach us that it’s not easy to repeat good performances back-to-back in this league,” said Pune coach Franco Colomba — echoing opinions of a lot of other managers in the league. He also added that he could have played three attackers — but for that, the team had to be 100% fit. The signs were out on the pitch that it wasn’t. Crowd favourite Lenny Rodrigues didn’t start — even the impressive Israel Gurung was on the bench. Pune were dominant in the first half — and laboured in the second. Kerala kept their pace throughout the 90 minutes. So, did the holiday help? “Not training a day before actually helped us, yes,” Kerala’s goalscorer CS Sabeeth said. One would be forgiven to think that a holiday can have such a big effect on a team, but it can. Roy Keane writes in his autobiography Second Half that he would take his team go-karting after a loss or a few gruelling games. “Take the day off lads,” he would tell his team. On another occasion he took them all out to watch a rugby match — paying himself for a private box. On both occasions, his team won the following game. Footballers do get paid for playing a game they love — but sometimes, staying off the pitch can help. But it was not just a day off that did the trick for the Blasters. Pune were clearly getting hit through the right channel again and again — in the second half, we saw their tireless attacker Ian Hume play down that area compared to him running the show through the middle in the first. Both their goals came from that side — one a corner that was won after Hume entered the channel and passed it central to Sabeeth whose shot was deflected, and the second a Hume run and cutback for Penn Orji to slot in. “We wanted to expose the right side — we thought we would be able to break them from that area. And both goals came from that area,” assistant manager Trevor Morgan explained after the win. Those two attacks were not the only ones that came from the right wing. Hume got in behind the defence a few times in the second half and laid up another ball for Orji minutes after the second goal. This time though, the Nigerian couldn’t find the net. Colomba also said that due to the bombardment down the right, he had to change his plans: “My intention was to bring on Gurung on the left but then I thought I’d rather bring in (Kwang-Il) Park to provide cover in left midfield. So my intention remained an intention.” Pune next face NorthEast United on 3 November — a team known for their fitness and quick game-play. Ricki Herbert will have seen them play on television today — and Colomba needs to close the gaps that were too obvious on Sunday night — or risk another defeat. The writer tweets @TheFalseNo9