ISL: FC Pune City – 5 takeaways from the 2014 season

#3 Best and Worst Matches:

Franco Colomba masterminded a fantastic win at Kolkata, but suffered an embarassing loss to derby team Mumbai

Since FC Pune City's graph has altered at both extremes there are definite examples of the very best and the outright terrible games for the team. There have been times when coach Franco Colomba has been left at a loss of words (either out of sheer joy or a shattered morale), we take a look:

Best Match: Atletico de Kolkata vs FC Pune City (1-3)

Arguably the best game of the tournament for Pune, they not only took the fight back home to Kolkata, but also downed them in front of a packed audience at Kolkata's home ground – the Salt Lake Stadium. Kostas, Dudu and John Goossens were instrumental in leading an attack that clicked and sucker punched Kolkata's defence in the gut. Of course as is the case with Pune, on their day they can steam roll oppositions with the ease of a trapeze artiste performing tightrope walks while juggling three balls. And that was the case that day.

Pune opened the scoring, then cemented the scoreline with two goals further. It was also the game which would go on to decide the future of Pune, as they lost John Goossens to an injury. But on the whole it was the best game of the season for them for two reasons. One it shut the critics up and propelled them into the top four. And the second one, they showed what they were capable of doing when the sank the invincible Kolkata team in front of a stunned home crowd for the first time in the tournament.

Worst Match: Mumbai City FC vs FC Pune City (5-0)

The lowest point for the team came with the defeat at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai. With a hattrick in the first half of the game, and two further goals Mumbai ran through Pune in the 'Maha Derby'. So distraught was the team that when during the post match conference, coach Franco was at a loss unable to explain the morale shattering defeat. Andre Moritz was the hero for the game, where he broken open Pune's Indian-Italian defence line with alarming ease.

The magnitude of that defeat was such that, till date it continues to be the biggest margin by which a team has won against an opposition in the I-League. The defeat margin was a stumbling block as they never recovered from the goal deficit right till the very end.