ISL: FC Goa 0-0 Mumbai City FC - 5 talking points
It was a stalemate in the end at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda, Goa as the afternoon game between FC Goa and Mumbai City FC ended 0-0. The game was a gritty affair that saw attacking football in patches with both teams seemingly affected by the heat early on. Both teams struggled to create any clear cut goal scoring opportunities and whatever few chances came were largely due to defensive errors.In the end it was a point apiece to Goa and Mumbai from an encounter where these were the major talking points:
#1 Back and forth in the first half
The momentum in the first half swung every 15 minutes – Goa attacking for most of the first 15, then Mumbai for the next before the home side again made the running to finish the half strongly. Mumbai, conscious of their previous horror showings on the road, decidedly opted to play safety first initially, but made headway into the game with Andre Moritz building up play nicely with his forward trio of Subhash Singh, Nadong Bhutia and Nicolas Anelka.
Jan Stohanzl was once again the best player in a Mumbai shirt and his selection as Man of the Match was spot on. He was everywhere and shut Robert Pires out of the game and took on more attacking responsibilities after Moritz went off. Much of Goa’s attacks originated from crosses out wide, but they didn’t really create any clear cut chances. Mumbai grew stronger in the second half and looked the team more likely to score in that period though Goa managed a brief flourish in stoppage time.