ISL 2021-22: From Ogbeche stealing the show to the doubtful destiny of Mumbai City FC, talking points from week gone by

Another week of the Indian Super League has whistled past, with its fair share of enthralling moments. The league stages end on 7 March, which may seem a tad distant, but considering the fluctuating fortunes of each side, every game will have massive significance moving forward.

This week wasn’t any different. As has become the norm lately, Hyderabad FC scored freely and got the better of FC Goa. There were a couple of victories for Jamshedpur FC too (against Mumbai City FC and Chennaiyin FC).

Elsewhere, ATK Mohun Bagan and Kerala Blasters FC engaged in a tight contest and had to settle for a stalemate. Chennaiyin FC and Odisha FC’s downward spiral, on the other hand, showed no signs of ceasing.

Bengaluru FC and Mumbai City FC also hit a roadblock in their respective qualification pursuits — with a handful of games remaining, they have to depend on other results to go their way.

Without further ado, here is a look at everything that transpired in the week gone by.

Will Bartholomew Ogbeche ever stop scoring in the ISL?

Sixteen matches, 1351 minutes, 53 shots and 16 goals – if raw statistics were ever required to portray Bartholomew Ogbeche, this would be it. The striker has scored for fun and as things stand, he is the overwhelming favourite to take home the Golden Boot. For context, the second-placed individual in that particular race is Igor Angulo, who has made the net bulge 10 times this season.

Bartholomew Ogbeche plays against FC Goa. Instagram/@ogbechebartholomew

Against FC Goa, Ogbeche was at it again. Hyderabad FC had made a slightly wobbly start to their fixture against the Gaurs but began growing in stature as the minutes ticked by. They weren’t creating truckloads of chances, though. But when they did, Ogbeche rose the highest in the box to nod the ball into the back of the net.

Jorge Ortiz responded immediately. That, however, didn’t deter Ogbeche, who produced a sumptuous piece of skill in midfield, hoodwinked a couple of defenders and slotted the ball past Dheeraj Singh Moirangthem.

The more impressive bit about his scoring prowess has been the variety of goals Ogbeche has scored. Against FC Goa, he scored via a left-footed strike and a header.  He has also rifled balls into the roof of the net with his right foot, and has poached from inside the six-yard box this season.

In essence, Ogbeche’s goals allow Hyderabad FC to nudge ahead of their competitors, especially in matches such as the one against FC Goa, where the Gaurs, despite their lowly league standing, gave Hyderabad FC a scare. But because HFC’s star man had scored twice, FC Goa could never establish a foothold in the match.

At the moment, Hyderabad FC sit pretty at the top of the table. Mathematically, they have not qualified but it would take a collapse of monumental proportions for them to miss out now. The focus then might shift towards sealing first-place, which would guarantee them a spot in AFC Champions League next season.

You can be pretty sure Ogbeche will be dishing out goals during that endeavor too!

Mumbai City FC’s momentum bubble punctured by Jamshedpur FC

Akin to many a team this season, Mumbai City FC’s campaign has ebbed and flowed, quite often, making it incredibly difficult to decipher what turn it will take next. A couple of games ago, their edgy victory against Chennaiyin FC laid the foundations for a 4-1 triumph against Odisha FC – a result that led many (including us) to label them a force to reckon with, again.

Greg Stewart (R) is now the second-highest goal-scorer for Jamshedpur FC. Twitter/@IndSuperLeague

But then, Jamshedpur FC punctured that momentum bubble. Not only did the Men of Steel consign the Islanders to another week outside the top four, they did it in a manner that could deflate the defending champions completely.

Much like Mumbai City FC’s season, this match had plenty of ups and downs. The Islanders got off the blocks slowly and looked second-best for much of the first half. They also had to contend with Ahmed Jahouh’s injury during that period. Hence, when they raced out of the traps in the second half, many thought that they would put the game beyond Jamshedpur FC.

The defending champions tried their utmost and it wasn’t for lack of effort that they lost. It’s just that Jamshedpur FC, irrespective of the opposition and the circumstances, never go away. They keep hustling and harrying their opponents, continue bombing down the flanks, they launch long balls from inside their own half but most tellingly, they find a way.

This time, they did it by conceding two penalties, offering the Islanders a host of chances and then winning the game in stoppage time with a spot-kick of their own.

The game encapsulated everything beautiful about the ISL. It was intense. Neither wanted to budge an inch but ultimately, one club had to bow down to the other’s perseverance.

From Jamshedpur FC’s perspective, they are making quite a habit of emerging from the rubble unscathed. The trend continued against Chennaiyin FC too – an encounter where they dominated from start to finish and made the net ripple four times.

Mumbai City FC, on the other hand, would be gutted that they let the game slip from their grasp – that too at a time when every point is pivotal. They have more than a realistic chance of still qualifying. But their destiny is not in their hands now. That alone, considering how strong they should be, tells you how indifferent this campaign has been.

NorthEast United FC spoil Bengaluru FC’s party

The ISL landscape can change quite drastically and Bengaluru FC seem to have found that out the hard way. In the first half of the season, they were the side that every other team was trampling over. They were all over the shop defensively, were making elementary errors and weren’t scoring either.

Cleiton Silva gave Bengaluru the lead in the 66th minute after a barren first half, but two goals in the space of six minutes from Deshorn Brown (74th) and Laldanmawia Ralte (80th) allowed Khalid Jamil’s team to snap a 10-game winless run and move up a rung from the foot of the points table. Twitter @IndSuperLeague

Then, they started stringing together victories. So much so that they had cast themselves as one of the favourites to qualify till a couple of weeks ago. Just as the optimism was permeating their camp, though, they came crashing down.

Last week, they were toppled by table-toppers Hyderabad FC – a defeat that contained the shortcomings that had defined their early-season blues. This week, however, their fortunes took a turn for the worse.

Against NorthEast United FC, a club rooted to the foot of the ISL points table, they had the opportunity to flex their muscles again. But they didn’t. In fact, they looked so lackluster that they were lucky to not have lost the game by a bigger margin.

There were glimpses of the free-flowing football Bengaluru FC had played during the middle part of their season. It led to Cleiton Silva’s opener too. Apart from that, though, there was nothing to shout home about.

They got caught out defensively. Deshorn Brown ghosted in between the central defenders for the equalizer, before Marcelinho slalomed past an alarmingly static midfield to tee up the winner. The Blues threw the kitchen sink thereafter but the horse had already bolted by then.

However, all is not doom and gloom for Bengaluru FC. Not yet, at least. They can still qualify. The victory against Odisha FC, which wasn’t exactly a vintage performance, has made them believe that the stars could still align in their favour.

However, it must be said that they are clinging onto the barest of threads. And that, considering how much steam they had gathered till a fortnight ago, tells you how swiftly a fall from grace can materialize in the ISL.

Scrappy stalemate strengthens ATK Mohun Bagan and Kerala Blasters’ credentials

Prima facie, this seems paradoxical because scrappy games are usually used as an indicator for a side’s struggles and their inability to click into gear. This fixture, which pitted two clubs firmly lodged in the top four, followed a similar pattern with neither team really getting into any sort of rhythm.

ATK Mohun Bagan moved to the top of the table for the time being with 30 points from 16 outings while Kerala now have 27 points from 16 games and sit in fourth place. Image Courtesy: @atkmohunbaganfc

The game began frenetically. Adrian Luna was the first to leave a mark and curled a sumptuous free-kick from 25 yards. While Amrinder Singh was at fault for not positioning his wall properly, it was still a moment of quality the Blasters have gotten accustomed to.

The Mariners hit back almost instantly (84 seconds later, to be precise) courtesy of David Williams. The game ebbed, flowed and ultimately rattled along to a situation where ATK Mohun Bagan, who had also seen tempers flare and a sending off, had to salvage a goal from somewhere in stoppage time.

Under ordinary circumstances, teams would have wilted under the pressure. They might have even thought that a blip in the road was inevitable after the kind of unbeaten run the Mariners have enjoyed. ATK Mohun Bagan, though, were having none of it. They kept pushing, they kept probing and ultimately barged through the door the Blasters had left ajar.

This game, for those wondering, was more tightly-contested than the numbers suggest. The Mariners enjoyed 61 percent possession but had three fewer shots at goal (14 as compared to 17). Both teams had the same number of shots of target and created almost congruent chances.

So, it was only fitting that it ended in a stalemate – a stalemate that contained its fair share of drama, sending offs (Jorge Pereyra Diaz was also handed a red-card after being substituted), but most importantly, a portrayal that both clubs simply didn’t want to lose.

Through the course of an ISL season, there will be occasions when teams find it tough to play the way they want to. There will also be instances where they miss more chances than what would be deemed ideal and they would lack the creative edge required to prize open opposition defences. To an extent, this encounter was emblematic of these struggles too.

What mattered in the end, though, was the manner in which they ground out a result. A point usually doesn’t mean much in league football. But when it comes during the home stretch and after ninety (or nearly hundred) minutes of toil, it is worth its weight in gold.

It won’t be far-fetched to expect these teams to be keenly contesting the biggest games this season, again.

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