4. Kerala Blasters vs Mumbai City FC 10, October 2015. Attendance – 61,483
Kerala narrowly missed out lifting the ISL trophy in 2014 and had high hopes for their campaign in 2015. Mumbai had lost their first game to away to Pune in the Maharashtra derby 3-1, while the Blasters won their opening encounter at home against the Highlanders 3-1. Mumbai hoped the trip to Kochi would be more fruitful than the one to Pune and they started the game strongly. Sony Norde created havoc down the wings and the Kerala wing-backs who were instrumental to their success against North East struggled to cope with Mumbai’s attacking prowess.
As the game progressed Kerala slowly started to find their footing but had nothing to show for it and the first half ended goalless. The second half was a more evenly contested affair but neither team posed any serious threats on the opposition’s goal. The game did liven by in the last 10 mins as Ishfaq Ahmed’s efforts to disturb the scorers was blocked by Cmovs, Sanchez Watt was too through on goal but Debjit stood big to deny the Englishman. Mumbai could have won the game too in the dying moments. Sony Norde’s impeccable cross found Frederic Piquionne but his effort was denied by the woodwork and the game ended in a goalless draw.
5. Kerala Blasters vs Chennaiyin 30, November 2014. Attendance- 61,323
Both Kerala and Chennaiyin went into this encounter at Kochi having suffered embarrassing 3-0 defeats at the hands of FC Goa and NorthEast United respectively. Both teams desperate for a change of fortunes went into this game seeking all 3 points. Chennaiyin started the game strongly and were creating problems for the Blasters defence and to add to Kerala’s woes David James had to be taken off because of an injury to be replaced by Sandip Nandy. Jeje tried to break the deadlock halfway into the first half but his efforts were off target and Sandip Nandy managed two more crucial interventions in the first half to ensure a nil-nil score at half time.
As the second half rolled in both teams tried up the ante but strikes from Denson Devdas and Jeje were saved and didn’t trouble Nandy much, whereas the Blasters were wasteful in front of goal, most of their attempts being off-target. Bruno Pelisari introduced into the game as a second-half substitute proved to be the difference between both sides. The Chennaiyin man impeccably finished off a counter-attacking move at the 87th minute to give Chennaiyin the lead. Chennaiyin tightened their defence and saw the rest of the game through to run out 1-0 winners.
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