The latest edition of Super Sunday sees two games as we enter the second half and the nitty gritty part of the ISL as hearts will be broken and dreams will be shattered. Whatever happens, it makes for a great story, unless of course there’s a bucket load of 0-0’s. Actually, if every game was 0-0 that would be a story in itself. Wonderful.
The ISL has hit its halfway mark and looking over the table, it doesn’t make pleasant reading for Delhi Dynamos as they’re rooted to the bottom of the table with only a measly four points from nine games. Their opponents, Bengaluru have enjoyed contrasting fortunes as they sit top at the time of writing which is before the Chennaiyin vs Pune clash and look very likely to take one of the four playoff places in what is their debut season.
The later game sees Mumbai City entertain a David James led Kerala Blasters who are finding a bit of form as of late. A win for the away side would see them go level on points with the hosts which will really put the cat amongst the pigeons as we enter the business end of the ISL.
Stats
Delhi Dynamos are yet to win at home and on their own patch, they concede an average of 2.75 goals per game and score just 0.5. Worry.
Bengaluru have won three out of four away from home, their only defeat on the road coming from their first game away from home. Since that loss against FC Goa their record reads – P: 3 | W: 3 | D: 0 | L: 0 | F: 7 | A: 2 | Pts: 9. Dangerous.
Mumbai City sit top of the home table with three wins out four, their only blip coming against an ATK side where Mumbai failed to take their chances. They’ve only conceded twice at home this season. Resilient.
Kerala Blasters are the definition of a mixed bag because on their travels they’ve done one of each, won, drawn and lost, however, because they’ve only played thrice away from home so far this campaign, we’ll get a true indication of their away credentials in the second half of the season. Mystery.
Earlier this season
Bengaluru 4-1 Delhi Dynamos
To say it was a bit of a mismatch would be a massive understatement as Bengaluru well and truly put Delhi to the sword and the 4-1 scoreline doesn’t even do it justice as it could have easily of been double that. It was 2-0 at halftime, the goals both coming from midfield man Paartalu as Bengaluru dominated in every sense imaginable, possession, shots, so on and so forth. After the break, Delhi had 60% of the ball but didn’t do much with as they only mustered two shots on goal in the second half, although one of them did go in to make it 3-1 after Lenny had got Bengaluru’s third; Uche got Delhi’s from the penalty spot. Miku put the icing on the cake with three minutes left after being set up by the mercurial Chhetri.
Kerala Blasters 1-1 Mumbai City
This game was played whilst Meulensteen was managing to draw everything and it’s safe to say he would have made his fellow countryman Vincent van Gogh proud with his amount of drawing. Something happened for the first time in this game that hadn’t happened in the games previous as Kerala actually got on the scoresheet! The breakthrough happened when Sifneos got the goal inside fifteen minutes after being assisted by Rino Anto. It will come as no surprise to anyone that the equaliser for Mumbai came through Balwant Singh as the introduction of Thiago Santos made a real impact off the bench.
One more thing
All things considered, if I was a betting man and luckily I am, I’d be backing Bengaluru to beat Delhi Dynamos @ 10/11. This is one of these ones where you’ve got to put your house on, we’re down to two houses now, so let’s get it back up to three! Come on!
