Big football matches can often turn into cagey affairs, both sides looking to minimise risks and play safe, sensible football. The focus is usually on making sure no errors are made. It can make for frustrating watching, but this Saturday night proved just why managers focus on that message.
The first leg of the second ISL semifinal of the season started with a defensive error from Hyderabad but was decided by three from ATK Mohun Bagan. A 3-1 lead, then, for Hyderabad to take into the second leg all borne out of mistakes.
And they were rather basic errors.
Nim Dorjee Tamang could hardly do anything about Liston Colaco running at, and bamboozling him, but how his defensive partners allowed Roy Krishna to walk in behind all of them should lead to an inquest. Now, take nothing from Krishna's predatory instinct -- it's what he has made such a glittering career on -- but the fact remains that Akash Mishra saw Krishna, and marked his position twice in the build-up and then just stopped at the crucial time.
That goal came in the eighteenth minute, and there was an extended period of dullness where the game settled into the kind of pattern football writers are contract bound to refer to as a 'chess match'.
Then, two minutes into stoppage time, Hyderabad burst into life. Or rather, Bagan dozed off. Hyderabad had scored 10 goals from set pieces in 20 league matches, and their prowess from dead ball situations is well known. Somehow, Bagan forgot that. Bart Ogbeche -- THE BART OGBECHE, he of 17 goals in 17 matches before this, the second highest scorer in league history -- was left free in the six-yard box. Surrounded by five white shirts, and yet somehow completely free. Once again, there's a lot to love about the cleverness of Ogbeche's movement (and finish), but how the defense gave him that much space...
That goal turned the match on its head. The dullness of the first half faded as Hyderabad started getting on the ball more, and Ogbeche pushed further up the field. That first-half had not been helped by some curious tactical tweaks on both sides -- Krishna on the right flank, Ogbeche as a deep lying number ten -- but the coaches started course correcting in the second. Krishna was allowed to come inside, Ogbeche to move up alongside Javier Siveiro. The quality of the football took a drastic upturn.
Thirteen minutes into the second-half, Hyderabad took a deserved lead after a stray ball out of the back was intercepted deep in midfield and moved on to Ogbeche. He, in turn, fed Siverio -- who was then inexplicably tackled by both Tiri and Sandhesh Jhingan. They missed both the ball and the striker, Jhingan smashed into Tiri, and the ball rolled out to Mohammed Yasir. Completely free now that the two centre-backs had been taken out by each other (and the full backs were pressed high up in the previous phase of play), Yasir hit it first-time into the far bottom corner. Delicious finish, but made a whole lot easier by Jhingan's propensity to slide into tackles every single time he gets near a ball.
Then came the killer third goal for Hyderabad. It was absurdly simple in its construction. A 64th minute corner, Yasir whips in a lovely outswinger into the edge of the six yard box, where Siverio has all the time in the world to nod it down and into the corner of the goal. As the ball bounced into the net, almost in slow motion, there were seven Bagan players inside the box, and one loitering just outside. The closest player to Siverio, though? His own teammate Aniket Jadhav. One simple run from outside-to-in and he had lost his marker Pritam Kotal, and there was no one else defending the zone. 3-1 Hyderabad, and that's how the score would stay.
Now, the tie is not done, not by a long shot. A 3-1 lead may be safe against most teams but Bagan are not most teams. For the final fifteen odd minutes, they had Hyderabad completely pinned into their own defensive third. Key personnel changes helped -- Prabir Das came in as full back with Pritam Kotal pushed into the middle; Hugo Boumous came on and floated around, causing chaos; Kiyan Nassiri and Roy Krishna inhabited the penalty box, spreading an air of menace. Those fifteen minutes show Juan Ferrando has it in him to change things up, that he has the players to overcome a two-goal deficit.
If nothing else, this result guarantees that Bagan will play to their attacking talents' strengths on Wednesday. A neutral could hardly ask for more.