Blasters read riot act to Kerala Police in 5-1 rout

David James tried up to three different formations as the Blasters gave playing time to a majority of their players...

In their very first outing as a team, the Kochi franchise of the Indian Super League (ISL), Kerala Blasters, battered their opponents Kerala Police, by a scoreline that read 5-1 to the Sachin Tendulkar co-owned franchise, at the Corporation stadium in the temple city of Thrissur.

David James, the player-cum-coach of Kerala Blasters didn’t take to the field as he was busy formulating a strategy with which his team operated efficiently. It is known he tried out close to three formations.

The match itself was a particular instance of a football game, with it divided into three segments of thirty minutes each. James, for this part decided to start with all the Indian recruits of the franchise bar Brazilian left-back Erwin Spitzner.

The Blasters acclimatized 19 of the available personnel, whilst assistant player-manager James McAllister tactically soaked in the game from the sidelines.

The first formation James used espoused a 4-4-2 with Renedy Singh being played as an unorthodox creative midfielder, a role he isn’t accustomed to, whilst Mehtab Hossain participated as the midfield general. CS Sabeeth, a Mohun Bagan loanee, was on call to pummel two into the net as the first half segment ended with the Blasters comfortably in the lead.

James brought on the troika of Iain Hume, Ivan Barisic and Nigerian Penn Orji for Sabeeth, Milagres Gonsalves and Renedy respectively to add to the sparkle in the game. The team began to gel well and fluidity was the order of the day as Hume tried an audacious bicycle kick that nearly resulted in a goal. However, just as a cohesive unit was formed, the referee blew for the second segment to end.

James used the tactical break to put Michael Chopra, Brazilian winger Pedro Gusmao and Spaniard Victor Forcada, in a side that enjoyed tactical flexibility between a 4-3-3 and a 3-4-3. Chopra, miles away from match-fitness, added to the score-line twice to make it an easy rout for the Blasters.

“It was a promising performance from the blasters. They have a good set of overseas players. The team will get better once they play more and star names play from the start,” elucidated an excited  I M Vijayan to theNew Indian Express.