Atletico de Kolkata beat Kerala Blasters to win inaugural Indian Super League
Mumbai: After nearly 10 weeks of exciting action featuring 60 scintillating encounters, a mouth-watering clash between Atletico de Kolkata (ATK) and Kerala Blasters (KBFC) promises to provide the perfectly high-voltage finale to the inaugural Indian Super League football tournament here on Saturday.
60 games, 128 goals later, it all boils down to this. Who will be the #1STCHAMPION? Line ups: http://t.co/RxwBvcV3Nc pic.twitter.com/jDDbbp5EYC
— Indian Super League (@IndSuperLeague) December 20, 2014Get the updates here:
1: Shaky start from Kerala as Borja Fernandez wins the ball and passes to Arnal who finds Baljit Singh but his shot deflects out for a throw.
2: Sanju Pradhan joins the party and passes it again to Baljit but the men in yellow have a wall in the defense area – Sandesh Jhingan.
5: Michael Chopra almost nailed it after a series of passes with Iain Hume but ATK defenders clear it.
10: Pulga misses a sitter. He is a tad late entering the box after receiving Saumik Dey’s pass. As he moved to create openings, Borja cleared it out for corner.
12: Stephen Pearson ‘s lob inside the box is kept out by Edel. Ishfaq Ahmed surpasses few ATK players and shoots a bullet but it goes straight to Edel again.
19: Chopra’s shot is blocked. Kerala showing nice rhythm. Ishfaq comes to the party again but his shot goes into the galaxy.
26: YELLOW CARD: Nirmal Chhetri. Arnal finds Rafi upfront and as he was about to shoot, Chhetri breaks into a tackle from behind bringing the man down. Free kick for ATK.
27: Podany takes the free kick, shoots way above the bar.
31: Arnab Mondal breaks into a dangerous challenge but escapes booking. While Hume and Mehtab Hossain were galloping up exchanging passes, Mondal tries to stop Hossain from going forward.
33: Sanju finds Baljit but his cross is not good enough as David James grabs it easily.
37: YELLOW CARD Ofentse Nato
40: YELLOW CARD for Josemi. He is booked for dissent.
41: Spectacular save from Edel, he dives and keeps Hume’s shot out.
HALF TIME: ATK 0-0 KBFC
55. Pulga and Chopra combine to free Hume on the right but he is dwelled for too long on the ball. The ATK back-line is desperately covering its lines.
57. YELLOW CARD for Borja
65. Pearson doing well to receive the ball from Saumik. His cross for Hume at the back post was again taken by Edel.
67. YELLOW CARD for Sandesh Jhingan
74. Mohammed Rafique substitutes M. Rafi
77. Victor Pulga is replaced by the Nigerian Penn Orji.
80. Borja heads towards the goal while going the other way. But Kerala desperately clears their lines.
90. Rafique scores in the final minute! Kolkata becomes the first champion of the Indian Super League series.
Preview:
A dash of cricketing flavour has been added to the contest given that Kerala are co-owned by Sachin Tendulkar and ATK are co-owned by Sourav Ganguly. The two icons are expected to cheer their respective teams from the stands, along with what is expected to be, a sell-out crowd.
Read: Clash of cricket titans? ATK meet KBFC in ISL final
Ironically, Saturday's finalists finished third and fourth in the league stage, and the teams who were knocked out in the semi-finals were top finishers Chennaiyin FC and FC Goa.
Despite being finalists, both Blasters and ATK have had contrasting league rounds and semi-final matches.
The Blasters struggled in the initial few games and from being the bottom placed, they bounced back and started peaking at the end of the tournament.
Read: Kerala Blasters, Atletico de Kolkata in final fling
They outclassed the league toppers Chennaiyin FC in the first semi-final match and got the much-needed goal in the extra time of the second one to drub the leaders 4-3 on aggregate and book a spot in the final.
On the other hand, ATK endured a drop in form after some initial blitz. They were the league leaders in first few weeks but lost the plot and managed to scrape through to the semi-finals and the final.
The Eastern outfit seems to have lost it's initial rhythm and even against FC Goa, they drew a blank, managing to qualify for the finals on the basis of penalties which they won 4-2.
With the Kolkata outfit finding it difficult to score goals in the second half of the league, they have relied on their solid defence to see them through to the finals.
The Antonio Habas coached-team has secured just one win in the last 12 matches and the Spaniard would hope his side finds its best form and comes out of the rut when it matters the most.
