ISL: Chennaiyin FC 5-1 Mumbai City FC

Chennaiyin FC put five past Mumbai City FCChennaiyin FC rebounded from their heavy defeat at the hands of Delhi in fine style by thumping fancied Mumbai City FC in front of a raucous home crowd. Elano and John Mendoza inspired Abhishek Bachchan’s team to a handsome three points that takes them to second in the table. For the home side, a five-star performance saw them punch in five wonderfully taken goals while there was more misery on their travels from the team from Mumbai. Here were the five major talking points from the game:

#1 Elano has magic in his boots

Elano blows a kiss towards the camera after his second goal

If there was one man who left his impressions all over this match, it was Chennai’s No.7 Elano. The Brazilian put in a virtuoso performance for his team, netting two goals - the first from the spot to set his team on the way and the second a well-executed free-kick, their lone goal in the second half. Goals apart, he ripped Mumbai’s defence to shreds with his passing and ran circles around them. Nine out of every 10 passes that left his feet found their target and helped his team make inroads into the visitors’ defence and rack up more shots on goal despite having lesser possession.

He has been simply superb so far in the tournament and now sits atop the goalscorers’ chart with 5 goals. It was indeed surprising when he was all together left out of Brazil’s squad for this year’s World Cup especially since he’d been part of their triumphant Confederations Cup campaign. The high point of his night came during his second goal which had an element of theatre to it as if he had scripted it himself. He asked the crowd to pump up the volume just before he took the free-kick, and what do you know, a few seconds later the ball had nestled in the back of the net.

#2 Marco Materazzi\'s masterstroke

Materazzi’s decision to put himself in worked wonders

World Cup winner and Player/Coach of Chennaiyin FC, Marco Materazzi, made a fantastic tactical move that paid off handsomely for his team. He introduced himself into the starting line-up, not as a central defender, but as a defensive midfielder. He played the role of destroyer magnificently for Chennai as he got stuck in and helped disrupt Mumbai’s passing game and Andre Moritz’s influence.

He was marking runners, putting in tackles whenever necessary and winning headers for his team in that defensive midfield role and it wasn’t until his withdrawal that Mumbai actually found it a little easier to get moves going. Of course, the game was done and dusted by then, and Materazzi had had a huge role to play in that.

He also dropped back to form a five-man defence in phases where his team was defending deep and was a towering presence on set pieces. Mumbai, despite having eight corners, had no joy until Syed Rahim Nabi’s late consolation. It was also a much better defensive showing for the team after they let four goals in against Delhi.

#3 Mumbai and the 4-4-2

Nicolas Anelka (left) played his first game for Mumbai City FC

Mumbai lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with tournament debutant Nicolas Anelka playing in a sort of second striker role behind Subhash Singh, supported by Didika and Moritz. This was pretty much the formation when Mumbai did not have the ball. It morphed into a 4-4-2 when in attack with Jan Stohanzl roaming wide and Johan Letzelter moving up to join Moritz in the middle of the park. Coach Peter Reid adopted a similar approach in the game against Atletico de Kolkata, which they lost badly, and the result here was much the same.

The absence of two out and out wide players hurt Mumbai as they couldn’t stretch the hosts’ defence and a lot of the attack went through the middle where Materazzi and co. had plenty of bodies in place to deal with the threat. There was one really good chance that they fashioned in this manner, when Anelka played Subhash through on goal in the first half, who had his effort saved by Shilton Paul.

The 4-4-2 also thinned out Mumbai’s midifield and allowed Elano and Denson Devadas to get on the ball and initiate quick counters which Chennai milked to the maximum to inflict some heavy damage on Reid’s men.

#4 The long diagonal cuts Mumbai in half

Mumbai’s defence was shown up time and again with the long ball

Throughout the game, Chennai used the long ball over the defence to great effect. Their set up was perfect – two very pacy forwards in Mendoza and Jeje Lalpekhlua to take advantage of the lack of quickness in the legs of Manuel Friedrich and anticipation in Raju Gaikwad and the guile of Elano operating in their midfield. Almost every single time Chennai went this route, Mumbai were in trouble and Mendoza and Jeje were in with a chance. The catapult-like attack kept catching Mumbai off guard and was the bane of their ninety minutes of football on the night.

That said, Mumbai’s defence continues to be thier weak-link. Elano and Chennai’s forwards were really good tonight, but the visitors’ defence failed to make the adjustment and continued to play as apples ripe for the picking. The worry lines just keep mounting on the forehead of coach Peter Reid.

#5 Mendy and Mendoza play a crucial role for Chennai

John Mendoza provided a wonderful end product for the Chennai midfield’s ground work

In contrast to the visitors, the hosts defence was superbly marshalled by the excellent Bernard Mendy. While Elano and Mendoza expectedly grabbed the headlines, a word of praise must go out to the veteran French footballer - he marshalled his defence superbly and was always there in the right place to snuff out the danger whenever it presented itself. In conjunction with Mikael Silvestre, he helped keep the door shut on Mumbai, while also helping his team play out from defence.

Up front, Mendoza in partnership with Jeje ran the Mumbai defence ragged with his runs and got a well deserved reward in the shape of two goals. He could have scored a few more if not for Subrata Paul, who despite the five goals conceded, actually had a good game for Mumbai. The young Colombian, who was part of the squad which finished fourth in the under-17 FIFA World Cup in 2009, was full of tireless running and never hesitated to take on the Mumbai defenders in one-on-one situations. He provided an ideal focal point for his team’s inventive midfield.