It has all boiled down to 90 minutes of Football. Tomorrow, when we take on Kerala Blasters on their home ground, we must grab all 3 points for us to qualify into the semis.With the equation being practically the same for the hosts, it is surely going to be a fascinating affair. The last time we met, Kerala Blasters edged us out 2-1 despite a brilliant goal by David Trezeguet that gave us the lead. This team around, we head to Kochi on a more confident note, having had a better attacking and defensive display than Kerala Blasters in the whole tournament.It’s not just the goals (12 vs 8) that are in our favour, we also have more shots on goal, interceptions and tackles than Kerala Blasters. Also, at 73% our passing accuracy is better than the team from down south. But statistics are often mere numbers in a high voltage match such as this, and Franco Colomba will surely be playing his best XI , as nothing less than a win will be the desired outcome.Dudu Omagbemi has almost cemented his position upfront and looks like he is in the form of his life! Joaquim Abranches and Ivan Bolado can provide him the lively support in the final third, but all eyes will be on Kostas Katsouranis and Jermaine Pennant tomorrow. The greek hero has the ability to singlehandedly turn matches on its head, and Pennant was extremely unlucky with a fine shot hitting the post against Delhi Dynamos. In fact, Pennant said in a post match conference, that all we need to learn from the narrow loss against Delhi, is that we need to convert our chances better!The trio of Lenny Rodrigues, Krisztian Vadocz and Mehraj Wadoo is doing a fine job in the midfield. Bruno Cirillo with 62 interceptions and 34 tackles to his name already, will be all charged up to block out any attack on the away soil.Kerala Blasters will look to charge through the strike force of Lain Hume and C S Sabeeth looking to make runs into the defence. As we saw in the previous round, Kerala also have a fantastic goalkeeper in TP Rehenesh. Whether the home support and Rehenesh’s heroics in the goal be enough to block out the barrage of attacks from FC Pune City, only time will tell.It has been an exciting league so far and you know it doesn’t get better when 6 teams out of 8 head into the last league game, with a chance to qualify for the semi final.C’mon Pune! It’s the last league game. Let’s rally around our boys, as we take to the field tomorrow. Play with passion. Live to win!
