This should be interesting. Normally, for a report, I watch the highlights get a feeling for the game off social media and let my mind do the rest of the work for me. There’s one big problem with doing this for the Super Cup as it turns out there aren’t any highlights of the games being shown anywhere which is a bit of kick in the bollocks.
I’ve convinced myself that for the ‘real’ tournament, there’ll be highlights knocking about otherwise we could have an issue. So, for the four qualifiers, it’s going to be a bit of a mashup in terms of what you get, however, a bit of change is always good, right? Let’s see what we can conjure up…
Will This Be The Last Time We See Uche In Delhi Colours?
Churchill Brothers produced a stirring comeback to see off Delhi Dynamos and set up an all I-League last 16 encounter against Mohun Bagan as they came from a goal behind to beat Miguel Portugal’s side in extra time. It all started rather well for Delhi as Kalu Uche picked up where he left off as a superb effort from outside the area gave the ISL side the lead after only a matter of minutes. From that point, Delhi should’ve extended their lead but their own inability to finish and some good goalkeeping from Ricardo Cardozo in the Churchill goal meant that the deficit remained as one.
With thirty minutes on the clock, Churchill Brothers were knocking on the Delhi door and when Nicholas Fernandes had one ruled out for offside, you’d like to think that they would’ve sured things up. Then again, this is Delhi Dynamos we are talking about; four minutes after they had a goal disallowed, Churchill were level. On this occasion, the offside trap was successfully breached and Willis Plaza put the ball beyond Xabi Irureta. Following on from that, the game was very topsy-turvy, yet, when the referee blew on his whistle for halftime, the scores remained level at 1-1.
Ferocious is a word that is underused. It’s exactly that word that I’m going to use to describe the second half because that is what it was as both teams went for it. Despite both sides best efforts, the second half was goalless which meant they we went into unknown territory. The reason why I call it that is due to the fact that we had no idea what was going to happen, whether it was going to be extra time, straight to penalties, crossbar challenge or anything else the AIFF could possibly concoct.
Precise Plaza Is The Difference
As the story goes, for once, it was normal as we saw extra time. It was that man again, Willis Plaza, who proved the difference as he got the better of Irureta for the second time in the game as Delhi didn’t cover themselves in glory defensively once more.
A mix-up saw the Trinidadian have the perfect opportunity and he didn’t disappoint; Churchill Brothers managed to hang on as they knocked out Delhi, who I actually considered to be one of the dark horses for the tournament.
For these qualifiers, we’ll also cover what press conferences have been done post-match to give you a bit more content as I can’t really do talking points without watching the games. In this instance, Brandon Fernandes spoke to the media after his side’s win and he started by saying:
“It is not an upset. Delhi Dynamos are a good team but we are also a legacy club of the I-League. The concept with which the All India Football Federation (AIFF) started the Super Cup is very good for Indian football. Both teams missed chances but we were more decisive in front of goal. So we came out as winners,”
If you say so, Brandon. I’m going to have to politely disagree, though as I think it was a massive upset. He ended what was a short conference by lavishing praise on their two-goal hero, Willis Plaza:
“Since Plaza has arrived and is gelling well with the team we are confident. He scored two goals and carried the team forward. Scoring was a big problem for us but today Plaza scored the goals and hats off to him for that,”
Fernandes makes some good point and if Plaza can continue his goalscoring form against Mohun Bagan, then maybe we could see another upset. Yes, that’s right Brandon, another upset.
That’s all from me on this game, you’ll see me soon as I’ll be back with the report from yesterday’s other Super Cup game and I’ll give you a sneak preview and tell you that the I-League came out on top of that one as well.
Until the next time.
