Kerala Blasters FC managed to squeeze out a point from their encounter against Mumbai City FC in Match 47 of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) at the DY Patil Stadium. At this stage of the league, a win for the southern team was imperative, but after falling behind in the first half, head coach Terry Phelan had few complaints about the outcome of the game.Phelan decide to start with Antonio German and Chris Dagnall up-front, leaving Kerala’s top scorer Mohammed Rafi on the bench. Explaining this decision, the coach remarked, “With Rafi… he's been great. But we have made the change to the team before we played NorthEast [United FC], and Chris and Antonio played exceptionally well and deserved to keep their place in the team. Of course, Rafi is disappointed, because he wants to play, and he really has done nothing wrong. We had to win [today’s] game, and the way the game was going we had to change things, and it is good to have someone like Rafi on the bench who you can bring into the team.”Kerala were already under pressure before going into the game, starting at the bottom of the league table. Coupled with the added pressure of being a goal down, it didn’t seem long before the coach changed tactics, bringing on more attacking players in the second half and adding more quality to the team. “If you look at the dynamics of the game, they changed their goalkeeper. We changed our system too, to a four-four-two. It's always the coach’s call, and the players have to accept that they can't play every game. We always like to attack, like in the previous games… We are always coming to attack. I said that previously, we created good chances, maybe more than them. But it just wasn't there tonight.”The game against Mumbai also saw goalkeeper Sandip Nandy start in goal, his first game of the season. Nandy had an immense influence on the match, keeping the score-line restricted to just the one goal, and contributed to the team with some good saves. The coach had a few words of praise for his keeper. “Well, look at that. He hadn't kicked a ball before the game today. But he came on, and proved that he's a great goalkeeper. And that's what keepers are for – to make great saves.”The draw against Mumbai has virtually ended any hopes for Kerala to qualify for the semi-finals, but the team is still pushing on with full intent to make the best they can of the league.
