Bengaluru FC’s Players
Amrinder Singh
Hands down Bengaluru FC’s best player, and when your goalkeeper is your best player, it is not necessarily the best thing. He came out brilliantly to save Poojary’s shot on goal.
He made a brilliant tackle when Plaza was through on goal, and when he denied Wedson Anselme near the end of the game.
Rating – 7.5
Harmanjot Khabra
Good on the ball. Neat interplay, but his crossing is dreadful. East Bengal knew that, and allowed him to cross. The problem is Harmanjot knows that too, so he doesn’t cross a lot.
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Apart from that, he was good defensively.
Rating – 5.5
John Johnson
Johnson was brilliant in the first half against the duo of Ildar and Willis, especially in the air. But, he struggled in the second half with the high line as they pushed for a goal. Speed is not really his bread and butter.
Nevertheless, you would expect him to organise better with the experience he has in the League now.
Rating – 6.5
Juanan
This is the first really poor game he has had after joining the Bengaluru shirt. He didn’t get the time to get on the ball and pass it as he does in the Kanteerva, and with the East Bengal strikers targeting him, he struggled.
He got nutmegged by Willis Plaza, and run over by Nikhil Poojary. Sandesh Jhingan suddenly has a chance to play in central defence.
Rating - 5
Lalhmangaihsanga Ralte
Sena Ralte came to Bengaluru FC on the back of a wonderful Indian Super League season. He even had a cracker jacker of a first game, which he concluded with a thunderbolt from outside the box.
But, the cracks were apparent when Prashanth of Chennai City FC exposed him during the second game. Thankfully for him, Albert Roca took him out of the firing line, against Thoi Singh. On Sunday though, almost all the attacks were directed through Bengaluru’s left.
Nikhil Poojary probably had the best game of his life, and Willis Plaza kept running in behind the fullback. Time to get Nishu Kumar back into the lineup?
Rating - 4
Cameron Watson
It was one of those games for the Australian. At his best, he controls the tempo of the game, keeping possession and getting the ball into the forwards as soon as possible.
But, on Sunday, the game seemed to pass him by. His passing wasn’t off, but he couldn’t give the centre-backs the protection required to cope with the duo of Willis and Robin in the second half. The second balls too were more often than not collected by Mehtab and Didika.
He’ll be having better games in the Blue shirt.
Rating – 6
Lenny Rodrigues
His return to Kolkata. That too against arch rivals East Bengal, and like Watson the game sort of passed him by. There was that one cross in the second half to the back post which could have easily been a header to the back of the net by Sunil, but apart from that nothing in an attacking sense.
Did his job, but not well enough.
Rating – 6.5
Udanta Singh
Despite being only 20, Udanta is often the guy burdened to be the creative force behind Bengaluru’s attack, and his talent, more often than not, sees him come up with the goods.
Squaring up against probably the best left back in the country, Udanta could manage only two crosses into the box. Probably as instructed by his coach, he didn’t venture in-field where he could have managed some sort of joy.
Rating - 6
Eugeneson Lyngdoh
He was the best outfield player for the Blues by a margin. In the first half, he caused all sort of problems for the East Bengal backline, who couldn’t deal with the movement of the Number 10.
He kept popping up in space and ran in behind Gurwinder quite a bit. His lovely run and pullback allowed CK Vineeth to slot home the opener. He probably would be disappointed to have hit the volley off the mistake by Ivan Bukenya directly at the goalkeeper. All in all, a good game.
The Blues would have been sad to see him come off.
Rating – 7.5
Sunil Chhetri
A needless fight with Mehtab Hossain, and that kind of set the tone for the rest of the game for the Bengaluru FC and the Indian National Team captain.
He has started his third game from the left for the Blues and hasn’t had the impact that you would expect of him. Is it is his best position? “He is good everywhere,” said Albert Roca after the game. Well, we’ll find out soon.
Rating -5.5
CK Vineeth
Vineeth has definitely had a whirlwind transformation from last year, he was the one who you would associate with great running off the ball but ultimately no finish at the end of things. A brilliant AFC Cup run and an equally brilliant ISL season, and he just might be the best Indian striker around.
His goal was again the virtue of being at the right position when it came into the box, and he did finish it well. Tried an acrobatic overhead towards the end of the game, which made Novy Kapadia say his favourite lines “The last Indian player to score an overhead was Baichung Bhutia”.
Didn’t get enough service at the end.
Rating - 7
Roby Norales
Probably was expected to do much more than he did when he came on, but was well marshalled on the right by Narayan Das? Is his best position a striker? Questions, questions.
Rating - NA
Alwyn George
Didn’t see enough of the ball to make an impact.
Rating - NA
Daniel Lalhlimpuia –
Too little too late.
Rating - NA
