North-East United succumbed to the first defeat of the season 7 of the Hero ISL against Jamshedpur FC. A cagey match that ended on a defeat courtesy of Aniket Jadhav's goal.
The first half of the match was as uneventful as it could get. WIth sloppy passes from both the sides, the teams lacked the cutting-edge and the vision to break each other down. While JFC hitman Valskis was handled quite well by Fox and Lambot, Sylla on the other side was marshalled well by the Hero of the match Hartley. North-East had early chances through an Appiah free-kick from the edge of the box that was hit narrowly wide. Sylla came close to score but his shot was scuffed wide. A significant moment of the game was a judged offside call where North-East tried to hit on the break with Appiah feeding Sylla. The Ghanaian timed his run to perfection but was judged offside, even though he should have put the ball at the back of the net; instances that show a lack of goalscoring confidence.
Both the sides set up with a 4-4-2 formation and there were numerous wrong decisions made. Whether its the passing of Gurjinder, or positional awareness. Since both teams went out with similar formation, it was all about 1v1 battles that needed to be won. The only eventful thing that happened in the first half was Ashutosh Mehta crashing onto Isaac Vanmalsawma leading to a bloody head for the latter. We hope the lad is doing fine. Even though it was a tight game, Jamshedpur had better possession and passing accuracy (60% and 57% respectively) in the first half.
Both the teams came out in the second half hoping to break the deadlock. Both teams with enough draws at their back wanted to firepower their campaign. The away side looked more determined to grab the win as the relentless attempts to breakdown the Highlanders defence paid off with a defensive mistake when Aniket Jadhav scored in the second quarter of the second half. Another brilliant run by Aniket gave Gurjinder a torrid time at the flanks raising further question marks on his performance last night. atWhile North-East had an immediate chance to counter-attack, Machado who came on as a substitute for Appiah had his shot blocked.
In the 64th minute of the game, however, North-East United had a chance to level the game. A foul by Mobashir led to a free-kick, which was delivered into Sylla in the box. Lambot who tried to gather the ball off him was fouled by Eze and a penalty was awarded to North-East. TP Rehenesh the former goalkeeper was on goal who saved the shot by Sylla from the spot.
Federico Gallego came on as a late substitute to replace Khassa Camara but it was little to late to make an impact. Apuia and Benjamin Lambot were the only bright spots of the game with Charra being left isolated throughout the majority of the game.
North-East United have had a steady start to the season so far with two wins and 4 draws. Even though the season is showing an uncanny resemblance to the previous season in terms of the points, the defensive solidity was missing last night. This could be one of the disappointing performances for the club. With a lack of intent and firepower, the defence showed some loopholes which has been uncharacteristic of the team so far. A counter-attacking team feeds on the minimal opportunities that come their way and it is vital to pounce on them whenever the opportunity arises.
Without much of an over-reaction, we would definitely like the team to perform better as the previous draw against Chennaiyin and the recent loss against the Red Miners could be defining moment of our season by learning from and undoing the mistakes. Up next is Odisha FC and as the gaffer said in his post-match conference, this would be a test of grit and character to turn things around.
Up The Highlanders
We Walk Through This Together
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