ISL: How Chennaiyin vs Atletico went from slow burner to entertaining five-goal bonanza

By Harikumar V Chennai: At half time of the Indian Super League 2015’s opening match, Atletico de Kolkata and Chennaiyin FC were tied 1-1. It was a slow burner at best, with both goals coming off strikers Helder Postiga and Jeje Lalpekhlua taking advantage of goalkeeping mistakes. But that was not to be in the second half, when the match suddenly gained tempo and saw three more goals – two from Atletico and one from Chennaiyin. So what changed after half-time? Here are the three decisions which transformed a cagey encounter into a five-goal bonanza: Chennaiyin’s decision to ditch the long ball tactic: In the first half of the game, Chennaiyin tried to lump the ball towards Fikru Teferra, hoping for something to come off it. This meant the acres of space left on either flanks was hardly exploited. Fullbacks Abhishek Das and Lalmangaihsanga Ralte got into really good positions, but were left to be spectators mostly. The one ball that did find Fikru at a wonderful position resulted in the goal. [caption id=“attachment_2454192” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Chennaiyin FC’s Elano Blumer was at the heart of the home team’s improved second half showing. Sportzpics[/caption] But, Chennaiyin were better in the second half with some really good and intricate passing in the final third. Their assistant coach Vivek Nagul said, “There was a plan to use Fikru with those balls because of his strength and we wanted to win some second balls. But when we saw that our strikers were struggling, we sent a message to keep the ball on the ground for the second half.” Chennaiyin played with much more verve and creativity after this message, with Elano, Stiven Mendoza and Jeje Lalpekhlua playing some intricate football in the box to create a lot of scoring opportunities which, albeit went begging. It did however, provide a lot of entertainment. Bernard Mendy’s introduction: It turns out that the substitution of Mendy at half-time was not strategic, but a precautionary measure to preserve injured Mailson Alves. If Mailson, who was the culprit for the first goal, was jittery all throughout, Mendy simply seemed to carry on the baton. His poorly headed back-pass was converted by Helder Postiga to give Atletico the lead. To make matters worse, he left his hand hanging to a cross that was well covered by his teammates to give away a penalty. This time though, he was saved the blushes by Chennaiyin goalkeeper Edel Bete. We also didn’t get to see any of those marauding runs going forward from him. At 34 years of age, will Mendy slowly become the next Silvestre for Chennaiyin? The penalty decision against Atletico: The referee for the game laid down expectations as early as the fourth minute when he took his own time to retrospectively award a free kick for Iain Hume. It was to be a trend for the night, as there were lots of such soft free kicks, disrupting the flow of the match. One of his easier decisions was the stonewall penalty after Mendy’s brain fade but the most contentious one that got the Atletico’s technical staff most animated and their coach Antonio Habas run towards the assistant referee was the penalty awarded to Chennaiyin for a supposed handball by the simple but efficient Arnab Mondal. That was another retrospective decision which was never needed. Soon after, a blatant handball in the Atletico penalty box went unnoticed much to the agony of Balwant Singh who later said, “To me that looked like a sure penalty.” All in all, it made for a cracking opening game to kick things off for the second ISL season.