Packeer Ali should be at his motivational best to pick up his team after earning the dubious distinction of awarding HAL Bangalore their first victory in this season’s league run.
With a battered confidence, the Chirag United Kerala players gear up for their big match against the Bengal giants McDowell Mohun Bagan AC. The mariners themselves have been on an indifferent run with three defeats off their last five matches which might have well cost their aspirations to challenge for the title this time around.
Although the Chirag defence has looked solid in patches over the season they have been guilty of leaking goals via lapses in concentration. In football, especially in defence you can’t doze off even for a second. All the good work that has been done before will pale into insignficance once you do that. The centre backs Isaac Boakye and Charles Dzisah have displayed good tenacity, but have recieved little support from their fellow defenders.
A large chunk of the goals conceded by chirag have come from the wings where the fullbacks have offered little resistance. It would be too much to ask of the four defenders to keep their concentration for the full ninty minutes and hence, it is up to the other members of the midfield to help out their defence when they don’t have the ball.
Asif K has been a revelation in the middle of the park with the youngster showing good composure and creativity with the ball. The problem for Chirag would be a lack of genuine pace upfront. David Sunday is a physical player who is strong and can hold up the ball for the wingers to get into the game but speed isn’t one of his peak attributes. The Bengal side can take advantage of this by pushing up the play and playing the offside trap.
Prasanta Banerjee would be looking to build up the confidence of his side for the upcoming Bengal Classico by taking all three points from the Kerala side. It would be a star studded team with the Kerala fans having the opportunity to see a lot of Indian internationals in that side. The Old war horse Jose Ramirez Barreto would still pose a headache for Chirag’s defence and Odafa Okolie’s pace will be a constant threat on the break. Likes of Nabi and Jewel Raja would provide the steel in the midfield.
Having lost a golden opportunity to close the gap on Mumbai FC after faltering against HAL, the next few games will define Chirag’s season.This is the period when some of the senior players would have to take responsibility and raise their game. All the hopes of playing champagne football can be put on ice while survival in the league takes top priority.
Rohan Shah writes for FootballKerala.com
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Tuesday 31 January 2012. The database copy of this article was lost; it was recovered in 2026 from the Internet Archive's saved copy of the live page.