After an encouraging start, Nizam Pakeer Ali's boys have fallen off the pace in their adventure in the I-League 2011-12 season. This Thursday they will face the toughest challenge yet in Dempo SC who many pundits claim, even this early in the season, to be the championship material.
They come into this match with an intimidating record of not having conceded a single goal in over 360 minutes of football. And in Ranty Martins they will posses the most lethal striker in india.The Nigerian will be looking to add to his tally of 6 goals in four matches this season as he comes against a brittle defence who have conceded 6 goals themselves.
Chirag Kerala find themselves fourth from the bottom - only two places above the relegation zone. It is imperative that you don’t lose your home matches if you are a team struggling to remain in the I-league. Chirag might be boosted by the news that Anil Kumar PK, their top scorer last season, might be joining them before the Dempo match which would add a bit more potency to the attack.
Dempo's tough defence and experienced midfield would be difficult to break down. The Chirag midfield has to keep a tight leash on the likes of Climax Lawrence, Joaquim Abranchez and Anthony Pereira. The Goans are known to be slow starters and if Chirag can capitalise on this, then we could be in for a real good game.
Playing an all out game against Dempo might be suicidal and the coach has to be a bit pragmatic in his approach. Michael Matricciani has to pull up his socks and deliver a better performance than the one he displayed against Air India. It wont help to his confidence that he was taken off during the match and was welcomed to the side line by ironic cheers from the home crowd. If captain K Ajayan can find some of his old magic that he displayed during his SBT days, then Chirag can make a match out of it this Thursday.
The opening match day crowd at the University Stadium, Trivandrum, was very encouraging. The spectators which mostly consisted of youngsters braved the elements to witness the home team put up a spirited performance in the second half. Hopefully this is just the beginning and more will come because against the likes of Dempo the 12th man would be very useful indeed.
Rohan Shah writes for FootballKerala.com
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Wednesday 9 November 2011, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.