Mandar has been absolutely tremendous this ISL. I admit I was bit skeptical about the defensive capability of Mandar, but I am glad he made me eat my words today. He has good defensive positional awareness. Need bit composure in front of goal when playing as winger. Definitely we have good future left wing back/winger on our hand (Indian NT).
Good game of football that, and as a neutral, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mandar without a doubt the standout player; brilliant pace, kept it simple and killed Ravanan all game. He was unlucky not to score, once being denied by the bar, and then by a brilliant save by Simonsen, and put in 2-3 excellent balls into the box but Semboi and Abranches were caught on on their heels. Both the forwards too had chances but missed it, but I was impressed by Semboi and Abranches, particularly Semboi, who played his natural game but physically he lost out to Johnson. If he puts on some muscles, we have a very good player on our hands. Romeo struggled badly in the first half, but came back well in the second half and took on Shorey and did reasonably well. Hopefully he gets into form now.
Pune played an English game, hanged back, rode their luck, depended on their 'keeper to pull of some excellent saves, and got a goal on the counter for the draw. While we had to deal with the likes of @Leedsonperez and @Clayton's nonsense about Eugeneson, he showed with that goal exactly what his game is all about; getting into the box late, unnoticed by 3 central midfielders and 3 centre backs, and an outstanding header for the goal. In midfield, he kept things ticking over, and his coach would have been pleased with his performance.
Overall good entairning game and miles better than the tripe we had to see yesterday from Delhi Dynamos and ATK.
FC Pune City deserve credit for the way they treat their fans. Tickets reserved at centre of East stand for away fans. Reasonable number of people abt 70-80. And they were loud. I can say for sure that the noise at Balewadi is not fake. They trully have a good set of fans who chant and sing. Credit to whole Pune team and David Platt for coming all the way across the field to thank their fans. Truly professional stuff from the Pune guys.
I think it will be a waste of Mandar's talent to play him at wing back too often. He is a confidence player and has outstanding pace that will be useful in any league, and I rather he work on his offensive play, and concentrate on being even more effective when in the final third. While he is still officially contracted to Dempo, surely there would be teams in the I-League and perhaps even from outside India interested in him at this rate?
I agree. We anyways require more speed on the wings with regards to NT in attacking. Mandar is doing very well game after game and with zico around i don't write off another brazillian stint for one of fc goa's players' . If that does happen, i hope he doesn't come running back in 4-5 months.
Romeo never hung around to see if he will get chances at Atletico PR, but Zico's recommendation got him the transfer in the first place. There are other clubs in Brazil that might be interested, but I think Europe is where Mandar needs to set his sights on. If he had a competent agent, they would already have arranged for Mandar to have trials as soon as the ISL finishes, and you can bet your ass there will be scouts watching the ISL and it wouldn't take a genius to see the players like Mandar who stand out.
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P.s. Romeo did his biggest mistake by doing that.