Tale of two halves: Carlos enthrals as manager, player in Delhi's opener
Three minutes in to the first half stoppage time, Vinicius conceded a free kick right outside the area. Reinaldo involuntarily put in Jofre’s free kick and the Delhi Dynamos found themselves in familiar territory; that of being down and trailing in an ISL fixture.
Remarkably for the second time the franchisee from the capital had been found wanting on the left wing. While the opener resulted due to what should be aptly deemed as a collective defensive failure, the second was from a position which should have been Delhi’s strong point. Marquee player-manager Roberto Carlos was inarguably the best in the world at that position and it seemed quite inappropriate that he was missing all the action.
Off came the managerial track suit and the Polo, the gaffer was frustrated, he was agitated and he did what everyone in India had been hoping to see- bring himself in and up the ante, much like he did over and over again for Brazil and Real Madrid.
The second half thus saw him step in. As he had mentioned pre-game though, he didn’t come on as a left back. He replaced Hans Mulder in a holding midfield position and immediately seemed to inject purpose in to Delhi’s attack. Riise and Malouda seemed more assured while attacking and the likes of Jofre and Mandar were suddenly susceptible and a little less eager to move forward.
As the game progressed, the Dynamos came tantalizing close over and over again, and Carlos seemed to be delivering on his pre-match promise, that of, “We don’t care how many they score, we need to score one more.” And thus Gadze, Malouda and Dos Santos came close again and again.
One of their most notable buys in the pre-seasoon, Adil Nabi was brought in next. The West Bromwich Albion attacker immediately created an impact, he set up his coach who fired home from outside the box. A typical ferocious left footer followed but quite uncharecteristically it was way off target.
Final throw of dice
With minutes left, the Dynamos earned a free kick around 35 yards away from the Goa goal and the crowd went abuzz in anticipation; could it be an encore of that memorable night from Stade de France when Carlos had stuck one of the best set-piece goals in the history of the game? Up stepped the Brazilian and as the commentators exclaimed, it was indeed “Roberto time.” Andrade fiddled with the ball but held on eventually to thwart the legend. It almost seemed though that the gods weren’t on his side, atleast not tonight!
Here’s hoping that changes over the course of the league though, for we, as a footballing audience would be enriched if icon can pull off one of his characteristic match winning performances soon.