Leading 1 - 0 till half time Viva gave it up to Dempo when they conceded 3 goals in last 20 minutes to lose the match 3-1.
Viva Kerala started the match playing 4 4 2 with Wisut and Reuben in front. Sirajuddin found a place in starting lineup despite the injury he is carrying along with Sakeer, Patrick and Karma in the middle. Amarwanth Singh played his first match for Viva in for Charles Dzisah who missed the match with a double booking and Marshook for Noushad who was injured in he match against East Bengal.
Viva Kerala started the match in the best possible way playing attacking football and Karma found the net in 17th minute of the game of a cross from Siraj.
Viva came up with 40th minute substitution to bring in Anish KP instead of Wisut Bunpeng who suffered hamstring pull.
Viva kept on playing attack football and saw off Dempo attacks to finish off the first half in lead.
50 minutes saw a brilliant save by Viva keeper Sharat K to deny Ranti Martins. Sirajuddin has to be substituted few minutes later after he took another knock on his knees. Sumit Thapa, made it back to the squad for Viva after injury when he replaced Siraj.
Dempo kept up the pressure in second half through a series of attacks and got the first success in 70th minutes when Indian international Sunil Chhetri scored through a superb flying header to pull the things level.
Viva looked to attack on counters but couldnt stop Dempo from scoring another one. The goal came in 81st minute when a shot from Sunil Chhetri was blocked by goal keeper Sharat K, fell in to Ranti Martins who never let those kinds go away.
Ranti suffered a knock and had to be substituted.
Karma who had a good game had to be substituted following a groin injury. Sajesh replaced Karma in the middle.
Joaquim Abranches finished it off in the final few minutes for Dempo. Sunil Chhetri was adjudged man of the match for his goal and the contribution to the next one.
For the last two matches Viva has been taking lead in the first half and unable to hold to it.
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Thursday 12 November 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.
Comments · 8
waw relly? go viva goooooooooooo
c'mon viva... let us just hang on to the lead....
thts it!...we hav to win this!.....we desperately need those 3 points!...cmon ..hang on viva
playing too defensively is risky and i think that cost viva today. anyway not much was expected from a Dempo away match.
Clash you are right. We sat back in the second half and allowed them too much possession. We expected to win at half time we should have been 2-0 up. We dominated the first half but they showed their experience by keeping the ball better than us.
its a thin line between victory and draw when you play defensively with a 1 goal lead. and of course in the dying minutes, experienced teams will up their tempo and teams like viva will find it difficult to soak up such pressure. 1 or 2 quality fresh legs in the opposition could really wreck havoc in such kind of situations and i think we saw this y'day.
Anyway i think Sreedharan is dedicated to the cause of Viva and as some are flogging him for the defeat is not warranted. We all should understand that he is operating with a budget that might be fraction of what teams like Dempo, MB, EB and all will have. With whatever he has, he has managed quite well.
Crucial will be the home matches for viva, they still have time and has produced some good football especially against Mahindra, where booth lauded them. We can only hope that they survive in i-league. I personally did not expect much from Viva when they traveled to Goa. So, it is ok!
The same old story again. Viva playing good and loosing again. I think the problem upfront is more to blame than the defence. Because there are no quality strikers upfront. Though we have Wisut and Reuben upfront they are rarely showing form. What we need is some consistent strikers like in other teams ofI-league. We had Sabeeth. And because we did depend only on him before the I-league and when he got injured we are without quality strikers. Now we have brought in Wisut and he also is just a gamble, hope that he will not get injured.
I dont know why Viva Kerala is not taking players on LOAN from other Kerala clubs. Players like Asif Saheer, Abdul Hakkim and Ebin Rose are all fantastic strikers. Also they can look for the defender Basheer.
So far the best player of Viva Kerala is Sakeer. But one player is not enough, he needs very good strikers to finish of his passes.
I hope Viva Management is seeing this.
Hi,
Here me again, complaining the performane of viva, but whatelse i could do, if viva keeps losing the important matches.
Two important issues, if viva management is listening:
i) At the start of the i-league, viva players were made to believe that losing against churchull is O.K, then u have MB, EB or chirag...all these teams are big names so is it O.K to lose matches. why are we playing in ileague then? It is always matter of tempo, the team with winning tempo wins. viva started the ileague in defensive mode, in other word, guarding the goal, so we lost. coach, make the team to believe in themselve and u have bunch of good young talent, now the only problem is make them faresome or vicious and believing that they are better and faster team, then u will win the game.
ii) Reuben senyo, the nightmare so called striker for viva, i donot see any class or ability to call him natural striker, maybe playing in an impoverish club on africa and scoring some goal doesnt make him to shine in i league. i league is tough league, if compare to leagues in africa or some asian countries, indain coaches should believe in indian players. R. senyo, sorry to say, was a mistake of viva and it is going to haunt viva in future, if it doesnt stay afloat in i league. In video, watch his body posture, reflux, running ability and striking to the goalie...man, striker should have quick glance at goal before he shoots..maybe he is new to it, and no volley shots... u will be laughing calling him as a striker if u compare him with other top strikers. viva is not only having a wrong guy, but wasting chances..too many so far. If coach has chosen a tall african defender instead of striker, viva would have done better. since, sabeeth is coming back soon maybe it is time to make a decision.. let go R.senyo n bring in a african defender.. listen to my voice VIVA.
good luck coach.