Kochi: Super-sub Richard Gadze scored an 87th-minute winner as Delhi Dynamos defeated a worn-out Kerala Blasters 1-0 in their Indian Super League Season 2 match here on Sunday.
The Ghanaian’s header within 15 minutes of arriving gave Delhi their third win in a row and reaffirmed their position in the top half of the table. Having lost just one match at home last season, it was a crushing revelation for the Blasters as they went down in their second match in succession.
Delhi had a devious plan that was to tire down the home side and then pull the trigger. The idea was good and the execution even better as Kerala, playing a demanding 3-5-2 formation, lost the plot in the final stages and caved in.
Roberto Carlos, into his fourth year in football coaching, used his substitutions smartly while his experienced counterpart Peter Taylor made a mess of it and was made to sweat. Taylor had exhausted all three substitutions inside an hour. While removing Chris Dagnall — who had his head taped after an elbow from John Arne Riise — made sense, the other two were panic moves gone wrong.
The visitors preserved their energies and waited to ambush and in Gadze, they had the perfect predator. Shortly after his introduction in place of a brilliant Gustavo Dos Dantos, Gadze wriggled through the Blasters’ defence.
Minutes early, Marcus Williams had hit his own crossbar while attempting a clearance. Delhi attacked in numbers and that a diminutive striker was able to tower above Kerala’s lanky defence and score a headed goal, was ironic.
