Exciting Moments And Disappointing End Results, PIFA Colaba under-15 vs. D.S.K. under-15 ends 1-1

by Balbir Singh November 30, 2015

On 29^th of November, 2015, PIFA Colaba under-15 hosted D.S.K. under-15 at Cooperage in the under-15 Youth League Maharashtra zone 2015-16. The game ended with an underwhelming score-line of 1-1 with D.S.K. side down to 10-men for more than half of the game. The home-side opened the scoring on 12 minutes from a close-range shot from no.9 Prasheen Dhavre, who initially missed the cross, but reacted in-time to pounce on a miss-kick by no.6 Akash A. Jadhav. D.S.K. who looked out of the frame for most parts of the first-half got back into the game with a worldly strike from their no.32 Denzil Kharshandi whose individual moment of brilliance proved enough for D.S.K. to built upon or rather hold on to.

PIFA Colaba under-15 lined-up in a 4-4-2 shape while, D.S.K. shaped in a 4-2-3-1 shape, and later changed to a 4-1-3-2 shape after the allotment of the red-card. The area of the field where the game fell smoothly for PIFA Colaba was the wings; as D.S.K.’s wingers stayed higher-up the field for large chunks of the first-half, and the PIFA Colaba full-backs hence had a slight advantage while they changed from defence to attack. When D.S.K. didn’t have the ball, both their wingers, particularly, played narrow, leaving a good amount of space for the PIFA Colaba full-backs to run-into.

The one-man up-front and out-number PIFA Colaba in midfield strategy somewhat backfired at D.S.K. as the game matured. The lone striker hardly received any direct service, and made runs for either loose or over-hit passes into pockets of spaces, which rarely appeared, in behind the PIFA Colaba defence. Meanwhile, in the midfield zone, the 2v3 situation favored the PIFA Colaba setup as they remained compact and made sure they kept 8 men behind the ball when D.S.K. attacked with two strikers up-front against 2 D.S.K. center-backs. Meaning: they cancelled out or technically marked-out every D.S.K. player from attack to defence. They red-card decision carved ways for more dominance of PIFA Colaba in an attacking sense.

D.S.K. were now left with no option, but defend well and hit PIFA Colaba on the counter. Possibly, their only way against a much superior midfield of no.6 Akash A. Jadhav and no.8 Aniket Panchal was to stay compact at the back, and looked for an inevitable gap, aforementioned. The gap was seen and exploited, but not in a manner hoped or wished. No.32 Denzil Kharshandi received the ball on his left-foot on the left-flank, he dazzled past two players before lashing an unstoppable strike from his right foot in the right-corner to bring D.S.K. back on level terms.

The game overall, though didn’t have much to offer apart from exciting moments and disappointing end results, which is exactly what the game was about. A draw was somewhat what D.S.K. hoped for when they fell down to 10-men inside 30 minutes, and they worked hard to grind it out, which looked highly unlikely with their struggles and PIFA Colaba’s man-advantage. PIFA Colaba under-15 would be disappointed with the full-time result, and would look back to this game for more than just a good performance. The game was disappointing on various fronts, but lack of finesse in front of goal was majorly disappointing.