What’s worse than losing badly in sport? Losing from a winning position. And what made it worse for the Kerala Blasters was how agonisingly close they were on so many occasions, but at the end of the day, fans, players and Vukomanovic had to dishearteningly leave the tournament.
The trickery of stats
The stats at the end of the match show an advantage for Odisha, with 24 shots to Kerala’s 17 and a 55-45 possession with more passes attributed to Odisha as well. But they don’t justify the vigour with which Kerala played. They were relentless with their attack, constantly finding the flaws and gaps in the Odisha defence and creating incredible chances that came agonisingly close to being converted. But that’s where the first major hurdle came their way, Odisha’s goalkeeper-captain Amrinder. He pulled off a stellar game, diving left, right and centre and ensuring that the last line of defence was indeed the best one for Odisha. He was one of the pivotal reasons for Odisha to cling on and craft a fairy tale comeback. But it was clear that Kerala’s chances were much more severe and clear-cut than Odisha’s, and they looked to be in better touch than Odisha.
Odisha’s match-winners
But even Amrinder was helpless as Kerala finally found the net in the second half after dominating the first half, as their hardworking frontline finally got the reward they deserved with Cernych’s goal. But then came the spirit of Odisha, unwilling to let go of their unbeaten streak at home, as they counter-attacked and pushed their way into Kerala’s box and finally in the 87th minute, after their experienced striker Roy Krishna manufactured a beautiful play and got them the lead as a desolate Kerala Blasters goal line was breached and they had to move on to extra time.
Extra time saw a somewhat even contest playing out, before yet another creative play from Roy Krishna saw them snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Where does this man get so much energy from? Odisha scripted a cinematic comeback as Kerala players fell to their knees. And despite their best efforts, as the final whistle rang, this was a loss that would sting for a long time.
The plague of injury
Ivan Vukomanovic was incredibly disappointed, as expected, but was proud of his boys, especially considering the massive amount of injuries their team was witness to. Their star striker Luna came in in the late stages of the second half, and it was his first match after a long injury stint. Diamantakos, the backbone of this team was also out with an injury and didn’t play the all-important knockout game. Their superhuman goalkeeper Sachin Suresh was having an incredible campaign before he was ruled out of the tournament. Hell, they even lost their keeper Lara Sharma to an injury mid-match and had to substitute him.
Luck was meagre, almost non-existent for the Blasters, and they should be proud of how far they came and the fight they gave to Odisha which frankly wasn’t expected from a depleted Blasters team. As for Odisha, their dream run continues and the way they hung on and hunted for the opportunity to strike, which they executed to perfection, must be lauded.
