Atletico de Kolkata pumped in four goals without reply past a hapless Goa defence to take another giant step towards securing a semifinal spot, in front of a 51,407-strong home crowd at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on Sunday.
With this win, they reached 20 points, considered as the magical mark required for qualification. Sameehg Doutie grabbed the first and last goals, Borja scored a cracker and Iain Hume added the third from the penalty spot.
Last year's champions had started the league in a strong fashion, winning two and drawing one out of their first three matches. But they had hit a mini-slump soon thereafter, as they lost three matches in a row without scoring a goal.
Habas, who had let Jofre and Fikru leave at the beginning of the league, needed his frontmen to fire. Fortunately for the coach, summer recruit Hume found his shooting boots in a 4-1 away win over Mumbai, and now has 6 goals for the Kolkata outfit.
Another new joiner, who has impressed for Habas' men is South African Doutie. After a slow start to the league, Doutie has contributed to ATK's late season surge, his brace taking him to 3 goals for the season to go along with 5 assists.
Goa brought down to earth
Only five days ago, Zico's boys were enjoying a 7-0 win over Mumbai and indeed the Indian Super League's biggest ever victory margin at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda. Come Sunday, they would have been reminded of the fact that they had not qualified for the semis just yet and some more work still had to be done in order to achieve that.
It also highlighted football's glorious uncertainties with Goa being subjected to a heavy win and a heavy defeat in the space of six days. Perhaps, more significantly, it reminded us once more of the joys of watching a still-growing and an open league.
The margin of the defeat also gave Kolkata its first clean sheet of the season, despite being top of the table after 12 matches. Adding to the uncertain factor was that FC Goa were the highest scoring team in this league, prior to this match.
Older football leagues sometimes tend to turn into a duopoly or even a monopoly, due to the difference in investments that are poured into specific clubs over the years. A salary cap for a league that is merely two years old is a good move to ensure that initially, no club can get too far ahead of the others.
One of the factors that will also determine how these leagues pan out in India is the presence of viewership in tier II and tier III cities. The central assumption is that viewership interest in these cities is tied to a geographic connect with local or nearby teams.
An open league ensures that most of the teams are still in contention for a playoff spot, come the business end of the season. This in turn, is bound to keep a majority of these viewers glued on to their TV sets over the entire course of a season.
To further illustrate the point, last season's table-basement dwellers NorthEast United had 15 points from their 14 league matches, at a rate of more than a point per match. This season, last year's runners-up Kerala Blasters are eighth in the standings, five points separating them from NorthEast in fourth, with three games to go.
Call of Doutie
The Goans started the match in the same fashion that they had ended their previous encounter. Leo Moura flashed a shot wide after just four minutes on the clock and last match's hat-trick hero Dudu had a fierce shot when one-on-one with the keeper, only for Amarinder to brilliantly turn it around his post.
Jamie Gavilan began to grow into the game as he started dictating play in midfield. It was his pass for Doutie that finally opened it up for Kolkata, as Doutie collected the pass as he was cutting in from the flank and had a pop from a position just inside the box, for a smart finish in the 20th minute.
It was 2-0 just a couple of minutes later, as Doutie turned creator this time. Cutting in from the left after collecting a pass from Borja, he returned the ball to the Spaniard whose fierce shot from outside the box gave Kattimani no chance and nestled inside the top corner of the near post.
Then followed a series of robust challenges in midfield with players clashing and putting in strong tackles. Hume and Lucio had a coming-together of sorts when Hume felt that the Brazilian's tackle on him was a bit over-zealous.
The second half started with Goa maintaining a decent spell of possession without threatening the Kolkata goal too much. Similar to the first half, it was Dudu and Borja who had to be restrained this time as the match threatened to turn into an ill-tempered clash.
Doutie, however was finding it way too easy on the left flank as he kept cutting in and it was on another one of these forays, that he was tripped by Raju Gaikwad resulting in a penalty for the home side.
Hume stuttered in his run-up, but took it coolly to give Kolkata an unassailable 3-0 lead. Even team co-owner Sourav Ganguly could not help cracking into a smile as he applauded his team's efforts on the night.
It was fittingly Doutie, who got the last goal into a night as he ran onto a long ball from Ofentse Nato, this time from the right, took the ball round Kattimani and slotted it into an empty net. Doutie could have had another assist had Arata Izumi placed his cut-back from the right, instead of lashing it straight at the keeper in a one-on-one situation.
Goa might have denied Kolkata a fifth, but not the victory as the champs virtually sealed qualification for the next stage. Goa must go back to the drawing board and may qualify next time by beating NorthEast at home on the 25th and hoping that other results go their way.
With this win, they reached 20 points, considered as the magical mark required for qualification. Sameehg Doutie grabbed the first and last goals, Borja scored a cracker and Iain Hume added the third from the penalty spot.
Last year's champions had started the league in a strong fashion, winning two and drawing one out of their first three matches. But they had hit a mini-slump soon thereafter, as they lost three matches in a row without scoring a goal.
Habas, who had let Jofre and Fikru leave at the beginning of the league, needed his frontmen to fire. Fortunately for the coach, summer recruit Hume found his shooting boots in a 4-1 away win over Mumbai, and now has 6 goals for the Kolkata outfit.
Another new joiner, who has impressed for Habas' men is South African Doutie. After a slow start to the league, Doutie has contributed to ATK's late season surge, his brace taking him to 3 goals for the season to go along with 5 assists.
Goa brought down to earth
Only five days ago, Zico's boys were enjoying a 7-0 win over Mumbai and indeed the Indian Super League's biggest ever victory margin at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda. Come Sunday, they would have been reminded of the fact that they had not qualified for the semis just yet and some more work still had to be done in order to achieve that.
It also highlighted football's glorious uncertainties with Goa being subjected to a heavy win and a heavy defeat in the space of six days. Perhaps, more significantly, it reminded us once more of the joys of watching a still-growing and an open league.
The margin of the defeat also gave Kolkata its first clean sheet of the season, despite being top of the table after 12 matches. Adding to the uncertain factor was that FC Goa were the highest scoring team in this league, prior to this match.
Older football leagues sometimes tend to turn into a duopoly or even a monopoly, due to the difference in investments that are poured into specific clubs over the years. A salary cap for a league that is merely two years old is a good move to ensure that initially, no club can get too far ahead of the others.
One of the factors that will also determine how these leagues pan out in India is the presence of viewership in tier II and tier III cities. The central assumption is that viewership interest in these cities is tied to a geographic connect with local or nearby teams.
An open league ensures that most of the teams are still in contention for a playoff spot, come the business end of the season. This in turn, is bound to keep a majority of these viewers glued on to their TV sets over the entire course of a season.
To further illustrate the point, last season's table-basement dwellers NorthEast United had 15 points from their 14 league matches, at a rate of more than a point per match. This season, last year's runners-up Kerala Blasters are eighth in the standings, five points separating them from NorthEast in fourth, with three games to go.
Call of Doutie
The Goans started the match in the same fashion that they had ended their previous encounter. Leo Moura flashed a shot wide after just four minutes on the clock and last match's hat-trick hero Dudu had a fierce shot when one-on-one with the keeper, only for Amarinder to brilliantly turn it around his post.
Jamie Gavilan began to grow into the game as he started dictating play in midfield. It was his pass for Doutie that finally opened it up for Kolkata, as Doutie collected the pass as he was cutting in from the flank and had a pop from a position just inside the box, for a smart finish in the 20th minute.
It was 2-0 just a couple of minutes later, as Doutie turned creator this time. Cutting in from the left after collecting a pass from Borja, he returned the ball to the Spaniard whose fierce shot from outside the box gave Kattimani no chance and nestled inside the top corner of the near post.
Then followed a series of robust challenges in midfield with players clashing and putting in strong tackles. Hume and Lucio had a coming-together of sorts when Hume felt that the Brazilian's tackle on him was a bit over-zealous.
The second half started with Goa maintaining a decent spell of possession without threatening the Kolkata goal too much. Similar to the first half, it was Dudu and Borja who had to be restrained this time as the match threatened to turn into an ill-tempered clash.
Doutie, however was finding it way too easy on the left flank as he kept cutting in and it was on another one of these forays, that he was tripped by Raju Gaikwad resulting in a penalty for the home side.
Hume stuttered in his run-up, but took it coolly to give Kolkata an unassailable 3-0 lead. Even team co-owner Sourav Ganguly could not help cracking into a smile as he applauded his team's efforts on the night.
It was fittingly Doutie, who got the last goal into a night as he ran onto a long ball from Ofentse Nato, this time from the right, took the ball round Kattimani and slotted it into an empty net. Doutie could have had another assist had Arata Izumi placed his cut-back from the right, instead of lashing it straight at the keeper in a one-on-one situation.
Goa might have denied Kolkata a fifth, but not the victory as the champs virtually sealed qualification for the next stage. Goa must go back to the drawing board and may qualify next time by beating NorthEast at home on the 25th and hoping that other results go their way.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!