Mumbai: ‘Legends never retire’ became the quote of all Mumbaikars a year back when cricketer Sachin Tendulkar decided to call it a day. On Sunday, here at the DY Patil Stadium, another sportsman strengthened the significance of this citation displaying his splendor. Former France footballer Nicolas Anelka might not be as agile as the Mesut Ozils and Juan Matas, but his foot still remains musical. The Frenchman scored his first Indian Super League (ISL) goal off a free-kick as Mumbai City FC beat Kerala Blasters FC 1-0.
The ‘Anelka Anelka’ chant could have reached his ears when he curled the ball past Kerala custodian Sandip Nandy in the 44th minute. Ishfaq Ahmed's silly tackle on Jan Stohanzl led to the boot and the former Chelsea man made no mistake of repeating what he has been doing for years with English clubs.
An injury to player-manager David James made Kerala look ten times weaker. Though Nandy wasn't tested much for the first period save Anelka's beautiful song, he kept busy in the last 25 minutes.
From the onset, Syed Rahim Nabi and Lalrindika Ralte started looking for open spaces with Anelka eyeing the right position. It looked like the team sat down with a plan after the horror show in Chennai last week.
"The players stuck to the game plan which worked wonders, though we should have scored more goals in the second half. Anelka is a top player. You could see two to three men marking him whenever he was upfront," said Mumbai City FC coach Peter Reid.
Among the visitors, Cedric Hengbart (another Frenchman) was a delight. Unfortunately, he ended up on the losing side. But he was the sole player who could rob the ball off the Mumbai forwards, including Anelka, and intercepted set pieces. He, along with Penn Orji, created some nervous moments for the hosts. Orji, surprisingly, was taken off in the 52nd minute which raised eyebrows for he was passing the long balls and shaping sitters.
Mumbai missed a dozen chances during the second period of play. Stohanzl came close to scoring the second goal in the 55th minute but his shot, from 60 yards, went into the galaxy. Next, in the 73rd minute, Subhash Singh – who also flaunted a new haircut and was difficult to spot – missed a close one from an Anelka cross.
"The goal that Subhash missed was a classic example of counter-attack," agreed Reid.
Nonetheless, his boys looked the better side on field and are now fifth in standings. They will play Delhi Dynamos on November 5, Wednesday here again. It remains to be seen how they challenge Alessandro Del Piero and company.
