It’s a story of two completely different seasons as FC Goa and Delhi Dynamos take each other on at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Goa. For the home side, it has been a very good season so far, while the away side are still looking for their first win of the season, in what will be their eighth game this season.
Goa hope last time was a blip
Goa had one draw and four wins in a row, including an impressive 5-0 win over Mumbai, before last week’s match against Jamshedpur. Michael Soosairaj scored his second of the ISL campaign to give Jamshedpur the lead on their own turf before Mourtada Fall equalised after half an hour of play. Goa took that result into the locker room, but instead of building on that in the second half, their match fell apart like a house of cards.
Soosairaj gave Jamshedpur the lead only five minutes after the break and the home side never looked back. When Goa were pushing for a goal towards the end of the match Memo and Sumeet Passi promptly put that to bed by scoring one each within a minute of each other.
Goa will hope that match was a workplace accident, something that happens rarely, and that they will be back to winning ways this evening.
Delhi’s dreary start
As for Delhi it has, as mentioned, not been a great season. No wins so far in what has been a bleak season. Their fans must have exceptionally strong hearts at it has been heartbreak late in the match on several occasions, whether it’s losing all three points or not getting a draw. Curiously enough the last team Delhi played were the same as Goa. That’s right, Jamshedpur stood on the other side on Sunday, how did Delhi do in that one?
It was one where they once again had to endure a late slap in the face, although not as late as on other occasions. They came back from 1-0 down in the first half to take the lead after three great minutes. Lallianzuala Chhangte brought Delhi level in the 55th minute before Adria Carmona gave the Dynamos the lead in the 58th. But as mentioned, Delhi can’t keep a lead and Tiri brought Jamshedpur level with only 18 minutes remaining on the clock in the stadium.
Gombau could be gone
I like to try and predict when managers are going to get sacked and my “spidey sense” is tingling again. No wins in seven tries, that might well be the end of Josep Gombau in the Delhi Dynamos hot seat. It looks like John Gregory has gotten himself another game after I said it could be win or get fired for him at Chennaiyin.
Gombau must hope me predicting him getting fired will have the same effect on his boys, if not he could be out the door. The same “checklist” applies to Gombau as it did to Gregory; a long break after this game that either gives Gombau time to turn things around or the board time to find a new leader for the sinking ship.
Prediction
Right then. Let me just get straight to it. Goa will take this one. Why? They want revenge from the loss last week and they simply put are a better football team than Delhi these days. Gombau might find himself with a spare weekend for the first time in a while.
