The Indian Arrows, playing their first I-League match in New Delhi this season, went down 0-2 to Gokulam Kerala FC.
The sparse crowd at the Ambedkar Stadium witnessed the Under-19 developmental side from the All India Football Federation hit the crossbar but unable to muster many clear-cut chances.
Gokulam were opportunistic at the front and solid at the back, as the team from Kerala managed a set-piece goal in each half to give themselves a crucial win in their fourth match of the season.
Flat-footed Arrows make slow start
Yesterday, Gokulam coach Bino George had insisted that the Arrows wouldn’t be an easy team to play against, stating that their work rate off the ball was a massive factor in deciding the game.
Fortunately for George, the Arrows failed to do much with the ball as Gokulam, much like Minerva Punjab before them, sat deep and thwarted the front-line of Edmund Lalrindika, Aniket Jadhav and Rahul K P.
The Arrows, the designated home side, lined up in a 4-2-3-1 as Abhishek Halder lined up behind Lalrindika, with Jadhav and Rahul on the flanks. Jeakson Singh and Amarjit Kiyam sat deep as Gokulam fielded a 4-4-1-1 with Usman Ashik supported by Syrian playmaker Khaled Al-Saleh.
Luis Norton de Matos saw his side make a slow start as Gokulam held the Arrows at arms length. Much of the play for the hosts, came through Jadhav on the left, who later switched to the right, but the Kohlapur-born attacker was kept quiet by Gokulam’s full-backs.
Set-piece troubles
De Matos saw his side go behind in the 12th minute, as a routine corner by Rohit Mirza saw unmarked centre-back Daniel Addo rise highest and head the ball into the net.
The Portuguese would later quip about his side’s failings to keep the set-pieces out by stating that the Arrows had ‘Christmas gifted’ two goals to Gokulam.
The Kerala side, de Matos had stated, hadn’t produced many chances from open play and the Arrows head coach was right, as the game was played at a pedestrian pace from the outset. Al-Saleh, in particular, was very static for Gokulam as Ashik found himself isolated by Anwar Ali and Deepak Tangri.
The second goal saw more poor marking from the Arrows as Sanjeev Stalin’s rash tackle saw Gokulam earn a free-kick on the right. The Syrian Al-Saleh, anonymous till then, took a free-kick with his left, which swung in, and evaded everybody in the Arrows’ defence as Gokulam made it 2-0 in the 64th-minute.
De Matos blames shift to Delhi
The Arrows showed much more urgency in the second half but de Matos agreed that his players were very sluggish in the opening minutes of the game. The Portuguese had said that his players were slow in a ‘horrible’ first 45 minutes and that they did not have ‘enough experience’ to control the match.
The developmental side did start the second half with more urgency and had two shots on target before Stalin’s free-kick crashed off the crossbar. That was as good as it got for the Arrows, as Gokulam’s second goal deflated the home team.
De Matos chose to concentrate on the fact that the Arrows had shifted their base from Goa to New Delhi and blamed the sluggishness on the fact that the players were unable to adapt to their new surroundings.
“The pitch here is very hard, not good. To take more than one or two touches is difficult. They changed their sleeping cycle. Goa has better facilities to train, and here the logistics are more complicated. They have to travel an hour back and forth to get to training here,” said de Matos.
An official close to the team confirmed that talks were underway to try and get the team back to Goa. The Arrows, who have now gone three games without a goal, face Shillong Lajong at the same venue on the 26th.
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