Chennaiyin won their fourth game on the bounce against Pune on Saturday by a solitary goal to become the last team to grab a playoff spot and in the process, broke all NorthEast fans’ hearts. This was something that looked very unlikely after ten games, when Chennaiyin were bottom of the table with ten points.
Speaking in the aftermath of their 1-0 victory over the home side at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium in Pune, Materazzi said, “I think that our players did a great job to keep us alive. We knew we had to win four games in a row. Most importantly, we knew we were not inferior to any team. We kept on training and now we are in the semi-finals.”
Last season’s table toppers had looked dead and buried after a 2-1 loss to the defending champs Atletico de Kolkata on Matchday 10. Instead they have shown great resilience, staving off rain, showing great grit and notable improvements at both ends of the pitch to seal their spot.
Brave Chennai, poor Pune
When the season started, Pune FC arguably had one of the best, if not the best squads on paper and should have done better in spite of their away game failures.
Marquee player Adrian Mutu, Kalu Uche, Yendrick Ruiz, Diego Colotto, Nicky Shorey, Roger Johnson, Didier Zokora and Tuncay Sanli all featured for a team which had an array of former European league stars at their disposal and still, quite inexplicably failed to even finish close to the semifinal spots, eventually ending up second last in the table, seven points short of fourth spot.
Yet, it all started so well for Platt’s men as they stood first in the table after six games and 12 points. Platt had taken advantage of having a big, balanced squad and had rotated well till that point. What followed was dismal as they went on an eight game winless streak, picking up only 3 points in that run of matches.
Their away form, in particular, is to blame as they picked up only two points all season on their travels. Even last placed Kerala did better, picking up five away points. Ultimately, the buck stops at the feet of the manager, and after failing to make the semis again, the team management must go back to the drawing board.
On the other hand, Chennaiyin faced a harrowing few days as the city has been lashed by rains and they played three home games during this time. On a home field that was barely playable, they did extremely well to eke out three wins and came into the last game, knowing they only had to draw as they had a superior goal difference.
In the end, they did it, the only way Chennaiyin does, winning the game and propelling themselves to second in the table with 22 points. Last season’s league toppers look dangerous again and go into the semis in excellent form and one would be a brave man to bet against them making the semis and righting the wrongs from last season.
Jeje does enough
Pune were already out of the running by the time the match started as Chennaiyin were the only ones with anything to play for. The first half was sedate as Yendrick did well to get to a ball inside the box and acrobatically shot for goal, only for the ball to go above the goal.
In the other end, Stiven Mendoza was proving to be the danger man one again as he cut inside Roger Johnson and shot straight at Simonsen, who could parry it away. Thoi Singh and Mutu had half-chances for their teams in a period where Mendoza was coming in for some rough treatment from the home side.
On one of these occasions, Mendoza lashed out at Govin after the latter had bundled him over and even took a swipe at peace maker Johnson before Elano stepped it to sort things out.
Elano, who has not been as prolific as last season, tried to curl one beyond Simonsen drawing a good save from the Dane as a cagey half ended in a stalemate.
The game did not get any better for Elano, who went down too easily in the Pune box and was booked for diving.
The breakthrough finally came in the 65th minute as Jeje Lalpekhlua running at the Pune defence, saw his initial shot blocked but made no mistake with the rebound as he calmly stroked the ball past the Pune stopper at this near post. This was Jeje’s fifth goal of the season in only his eighth match, as he became the second highest Indian scorer in the league this season, level with Arata Izumi and only behind Sunil Chhetri.
A clash of heads between Gurjinder and Jeje left both men on the ground for some time as speculative strikes by Mutu and Thoi Singh brought an end to proceedings.
Although John Mendoza has been the standout star for Materazzi’s men with 11 goals, the Indian contingent of Jeje, Dhanachandra, Thoi and Jayesh have ably supported the Colombian along with Elano and Bernard Mendy.
The last league game between Delhi and Goa will see the winner qualify for the top spot, while the losing side win finish in fourth. The semifinals will then be Delhi vs Goa and Atletico vs Chennaiyin.
In the case of a draw, Chennaiyin will finish fourth and Atletico will remain first in the table, thus keeping the semifinal line-up the same in case of any result.
Speaking in the aftermath of their 1-0 victory over the home side at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex Stadium in Pune, Materazzi said, “I think that our players did a great job to keep us alive. We knew we had to win four games in a row. Most importantly, we knew we were not inferior to any team. We kept on training and now we are in the semi-finals.”
Last season’s table toppers had looked dead and buried after a 2-1 loss to the defending champs Atletico de Kolkata on Matchday 10. Instead they have shown great resilience, staving off rain, showing great grit and notable improvements at both ends of the pitch to seal their spot.
Brave Chennai, poor Pune
When the season started, Pune FC arguably had one of the best, if not the best squads on paper and should have done better in spite of their away game failures.
Marquee player Adrian Mutu, Kalu Uche, Yendrick Ruiz, Diego Colotto, Nicky Shorey, Roger Johnson, Didier Zokora and Tuncay Sanli all featured for a team which had an array of former European league stars at their disposal and still, quite inexplicably failed to even finish close to the semifinal spots, eventually ending up second last in the table, seven points short of fourth spot.
Yet, it all started so well for Platt’s men as they stood first in the table after six games and 12 points. Platt had taken advantage of having a big, balanced squad and had rotated well till that point. What followed was dismal as they went on an eight game winless streak, picking up only 3 points in that run of matches.
Their away form, in particular, is to blame as they picked up only two points all season on their travels. Even last placed Kerala did better, picking up five away points. Ultimately, the buck stops at the feet of the manager, and after failing to make the semis again, the team management must go back to the drawing board.
On the other hand, Chennaiyin faced a harrowing few days as the city has been lashed by rains and they played three home games during this time. On a home field that was barely playable, they did extremely well to eke out three wins and came into the last game, knowing they only had to draw as they had a superior goal difference.
In the end, they did it, the only way Chennaiyin does, winning the game and propelling themselves to second in the table with 22 points. Last season’s league toppers look dangerous again and go into the semis in excellent form and one would be a brave man to bet against them making the semis and righting the wrongs from last season.
Jeje does enough
Pune were already out of the running by the time the match started as Chennaiyin were the only ones with anything to play for. The first half was sedate as Yendrick did well to get to a ball inside the box and acrobatically shot for goal, only for the ball to go above the goal.
In the other end, Stiven Mendoza was proving to be the danger man one again as he cut inside Roger Johnson and shot straight at Simonsen, who could parry it away. Thoi Singh and Mutu had half-chances for their teams in a period where Mendoza was coming in for some rough treatment from the home side.
On one of these occasions, Mendoza lashed out at Govin after the latter had bundled him over and even took a swipe at peace maker Johnson before Elano stepped it to sort things out.
Elano, who has not been as prolific as last season, tried to curl one beyond Simonsen drawing a good save from the Dane as a cagey half ended in a stalemate.
The game did not get any better for Elano, who went down too easily in the Pune box and was booked for diving.
The breakthrough finally came in the 65th minute as Jeje Lalpekhlua running at the Pune defence, saw his initial shot blocked but made no mistake with the rebound as he calmly stroked the ball past the Pune stopper at this near post. This was Jeje’s fifth goal of the season in only his eighth match, as he became the second highest Indian scorer in the league this season, level with Arata Izumi and only behind Sunil Chhetri.
A clash of heads between Gurjinder and Jeje left both men on the ground for some time as speculative strikes by Mutu and Thoi Singh brought an end to proceedings.
Although John Mendoza has been the standout star for Materazzi’s men with 11 goals, the Indian contingent of Jeje, Dhanachandra, Thoi and Jayesh have ably supported the Colombian along with Elano and Bernard Mendy.
The last league game between Delhi and Goa will see the winner qualify for the top spot, while the losing side win finish in fourth. The semifinals will then be Delhi vs Goa and Atletico vs Chennaiyin.
In the case of a draw, Chennaiyin will finish fourth and Atletico will remain first in the table, thus keeping the semifinal line-up the same in case of any result.
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