Jamshedpur FC continued to remain goal-shy as it played out another goalless draw, this time against ATK, even though it had all the advantage of playing at home here at the JRD Tata Sports Complex, on Friday. The host continued to miss a genuine striker as it wasted numerous scoring opportunities to make a repetition of the result of its previous two outings. The opposition and the defending champion, ATK, also did not have anything to cheer for as it continued to remain winless for the third consecutive match.
JFC got close to the goal in the second minute when Sameehg Doutie wriggled past two ATK defenders before going down inside the box. Referee Santosh Kumar was not interested in a penalty call by the host and waived ‘play-on’. Next it was the turn of Brazilian midfielder Memo, who saw his long-ranger sailing over. ATK fielded towering Finlander Jussi Jaaskelainen in goal while resting the regular Debjit Majumdar, who apparently was not preferred for conceding four against FC Pune City in the last match.
The pitch, which was totally dug up and relayed with fresh turf ahead of the tournament, did appear to be fully prepared, though big chunks of soil came up all across the park making playing difficult. The players on both sides found it difficult to move and control the ball killing the prospect of a good contest.
The host had the best chance in the 27th minute when its winger Kervens Belfort tried a thundering shot, which came off an ATK defender. Doutie pounced on the rebound and set up an onrushing Jerry Mawhmingthanga from the right. But the latter muffed up the chance finding the side netting. Jerry wasted another close chance in the 40th minute.
While JFC struggled to find the proper finishing, ATK got the ball home in the 32nd minute just to be denied it as an ‘Off-side’. Hitesh Sharma, the one to be picked up by ATK from Jamshedpur’s own nursery the famous Tata Football Academy, silenced the crowd netting the ball on collecting a rebound off the other TFA ward in JFC goal, Subrata Paul. But the former was hauled up for infringement keeping the score-line barren.
Things did not change much even after the break as both sides remained scrappy in the attacking third. The JFC, which looked more creative in the midfield with Mehtab Hossain and Memo doing good work in the middle, got another chance in the 56th minute when the young Farukh Choudhary within the distance. But effort from close was parried by Jaaskelainen.
Jamshedpur FC tallied three points from as many draws to be in the while ATK remained in the ninth spot with two points from two draws and a loss.
Comments
SHARE