Explaining the 7 minutes of stoppage time at the end of FC Goa v Atletico de Kolkata
The Fatorda stadium was treated to a football feast between the home side FC Goa and Atletico de Kolkata during over 97 minutes of scintillating action. 7 of those minutes were added at the end of the second half for a series of confusing events, it’s a surprise that not more time was added given the circumstances.
The game began in blazing fashion when the visitors went ahead as early as the 13th minute but the goal only spurred the home side to try harder to score but they could fashion few clear goalscoring opportunities in the first half. It would only be in the 80th minute, nearly 20 minutes after Atletico were reduced to 10 men that Goa found the back of the net through Keenan Almeida to equalise and salvage a draw.
The second half was pandemonium for the most part as tackles flew in and confusion reigned. There was a series of incidents that contributed to the lion's share of the injury time added at the end of the second 45 minutes.
The red card
A game that saw 10 yellow cards dished out (6 to the away side and 4 to Goa) also saw Baljith Sahni sent off to record the first red card of ISL 2015. It all started with a well-timed tackle from Gregory to stop Baljith after the Kolkata forward made a good run cutting in from the right. In the immediate aftermath of the tackle, a frustrated Sahni brought down the FC Goa defender to earn himself a yellow.
The infraction wouldn’t stop there as Baljith took it upon himself to confront the French defender and in the process appeared to headbutt Gregory. Though, the Goa player’s reaction to the foul was comically exaggerated, Sahni rightly saw a red card after a small amount of confusion about the incident.
The substitution
A few minutes following the red card, FC Goa coach Zico sought to take off his Brazilian-Portuguese goalkeeper Elinton Andrade and replace him with the Indian Laxmikant Kattimani so he could inject some more attacking flair in the attacking third. A decision motivated by Indian Super League rule mandating a minimum number of 5 Indian players on the pitch at all points of the game.
The substitution meant that Goa would for a short period have 6 Indian players on the pitch in Debabrata, Keenan, Denson, Mandar, Romeo and Kattimani. The Goa coach would a short while later bring on Jonatan Lucca for Denson to reduce the number to 5 Indian players but once again within the confines of the law. It seemed a straightforward switch but the amount of time it consumed to get the mess sorted angered Zico as he was seen screaming and waving on the sidelines.
It took close to 3 minutes before the whole chaos was sorted and the game could resume. During the stoppage, FC Goa players very vocally reiterated to the referee that the time wasted during the substitution would have to be added at the end of the half.