ISL: Mumbai City FC 1-0 Kerala Blasters FC - 5 talking points

In what was a tight match at the DY Patil stadium in Mumbai, the home team defeated Kerala Blasters 1-0 to restore some confidence in their ranks and moved up the standings in the inaugural Indian Super League. The all important goal was scored by Nicolas Anelka, who converted a freekick in great fashion.Kerala Blasters on the other hand would have been disappointed with their reaction once they went a goal down, and thus lost all the momentum they had gained when they won their first game in their previous encounter against FC Pune City.Here are the talking points from the game:

#1 David James managed from the dug out for the first time

Kerala Blasters kicked off their tie against Mumbai without their marquee player-manager David James on the pitch. The former Liverpool shotstopper who had played all games for his side opted to manage the team from the dugout for the first time in the season due to an injury caused during the last match against Pune City, making way for the veteran Sandip Nandy.

The 39 year old Nandy, who has guarded the sticks for the Indian national team on several occasions made the most of the opportunity that came his way by putting in a commendable performance for Blasters. He denied Mumbai more than twice in the second half including one were he went one on one against the Frenchman Nicholas Anelka that looked certain to end in a goal.

The performance of the Indian International is a positive sign for Kerala and he may feature more in coming days, thus allowing for an additional outfield foreign player to play.

#2 Teams experiment to give local talent a chance

While it was the home debut for the former French striker Nicolas Anelka, a few players made their first ever appearance in the inaugural edition of the Indian Super League. The game between Mumbai City and Kerala Blasters saw few new faces making their debut of the season in front of a decent turn out at the DY Patil stadium in Mumbai.

The highly experienced Sandip Nandy made his debut of the season starting the match under the bar for Blasters replacing James. Two local players, Rohit Mirza and Sushanth Mathew also made their debuts for Mumbai City and Kerala Blasters respectively in the second half. Rohit Mirza replaced Subhash Singh while Sushanth came on for Ishfaq Ahmed.

Even though it was a positive sign from both sides to try out the local flavors in their sides, both hardly had any time to make any impact.

#3 Poor second half showing from the Blasters

Blasters have been a consistent outfit, dominating their opponents with better ball possession and attempts on goals throughout the season. However, there are some serious concerns regarding their finishing and the ability to put the ball into the net.

As per James, their standards have been deteriorating ever since the first game against NorthEast United. They had their best performances against NorthEast and Chennaiyin FC, but they got their first win against Pune City when they played their worst.

They were no different when they took on Mumbai City after starting off the match with great composure with the team holding on to the ball and putting frequent pressure on the Mumbai defense until they found themselves trailing to a goal in the first half. They looked a different side since that, filled with error prone passes and constantly slower to the ball, only being a shadow of what they were in the first half.

David James’ theory clearly didn’t work out as they failed to come up with a result with comparatively the poorest performance of the season.

#4 Frantic end to the game with 3 yellow cards in final 10 minutes

The final minutes of the game saw three bookings in quick succession as both Kerala Blasters and Mumbai City were thriving for goals in a match that went on without any cards for the first 80 minutes.

It was even thought that the match would be wrapped up without any cards, helping both sides rise in the fair play standings until Nirmal Chettri was shown his second yellow card in the last two outings. Mumbai’s Letzelter was the next to make it into the referee’s book after a challenge on Kerala’s Pedro Gusmao. Steven Pearson was the third and final player to get booked after he won a yellow for the challenge on an already booked Letzelter making for a tight and tense final few minutes of the game.

Chhetri will be missing the next match courtesy his two yellow cards.

#5 Anelka\'s free-kick the gamechanger

It was a dream home debut for the Mumbai City marquee player Nicholas Anelka who scored the only goal of the match that helped his team win all three points and reach fifth spot, just above Blasters in the league table.

After a frustrating first half that saw his fellow team mates failing miserably to provide enough support, he finally found the goal from a direct freekick late in the period. This goal proved to be the game changer in a match that was dominated by Kerala until the goal had come in. It was a frustrating moment for the away side when they conceded and never looked the same since the goal.

There was no looking back for Mumbai as well, who became lively and made the most of their momentum by taking control of possession at the beginning of the second half. The home side, holding on to their single goal lead, was not ready to sit back in defense and kept attacking the Blasters half for goals.

This was also the first ever match for the former Manchester City striker after FIFA banned him for his controversial goal celebration when he showed the ‘quenelle gesture’ while playing for West Bromwich Albion.