Kamikaze entered their dressing room with crisis lingering in the air as they prepared to face a rejuvenated Manjan FC whom they trashed 4-2 on 8th Sep. The morale was certainly not the finest in this game and KKZ had the odds stacked against them as they were missing influential key players such as Haresh, Gerard, Manoj, Nayee, Francis and Captain Achu. Nevertheless, these are the times where each n every player has to dig down deep into his soul and rekindle the Kamikaze spirit and thatz exactly what they did on a cloudy Saturday afternoon. The return of Hari & Ghazali in DM, motivation instilled by Seelan & Barathi, all-out attitude by forward Vicky, sheer determination of Dinesh, second to none display from Suresh & Ismail capped of with a wonderful and excellent performance by the co-capt Nash who had his 1st game in charge today propelled KKZ to a 7-2 win on home turf.
KKZ got the ball rolling and Nash decided to go with a 3-6-1 due to the lack of defenders as Jayaraj stood in goal for the absent Manjo. The 1st goal of the game came through a swift n lethal KKZ attack ritual. Seelan, picking out a pass from Ismail, played Dinesh on with a splitter through pass and he put KKZ in the lead by placing the ball into the bottom-right corner. After a long term injury, Dinesh performed more than expected of him and the goal clearly showed his hard work. KKZ were'nt about to sit back on a 1-goal lead and pushed on. This time a corner, floated in resulted in a goal-mouth scramble, and Ismail popped up in the right place to fire home a volley in off the upright from 8 yrds out. 2-0 up and looking comfortable as KKZ played possession football before hitting the 3rd nail in the coffin through a woderfully taken solo goal. Ghazali, on the left wing, took the ball past 4 defenders on the left byline and without even cutting in, hit the ball on his outer foot to leave the opponent goalkeeper flat-footed and wishing he stayed at home. Great goal and well worth the wait as KKZ moved into the 3-0 lead and looking hungry for more. The opponents really got restless and silly fouls were commited to distrupt our play. But we stuck to our gameplan and the next wave of attack showed clearly the missing strike partner that Nayee needed through this goal from Vicky. KKZ played one touch football and kept possession trying to pry open the opponent defence who had 6 men in their penalty box. Barathi with his twinkle toe dribbling, dribbled the ball all the way from the right to the centre before eventually playing Vinnie onside with a through pass whom in turn, played a diagonal ball into the penalty area which was packed with opponent defenders. Vicky, ghosted in behind the last man, and tapped in for the fourth leaving the skipper surprised as he was already in the process of clearing the ball. With 2 goals in 3 games, Vicky looks the perfect candidate to play alongside naayee and KKZ faithfuls are already relishing the prospect. Just when we thought that the half was over, Aussie-boy Hari had to do something magical, like he always does, by aiding in another goal. Hari, dispossesed the opponent attack and ran out from his DM position before hitting a venomous shot on goal. The goalkeeper had no choice but to get down to parry it, and it fell into the path of the oncoming Faizal, who tapped home the 5th goal before wheeling away into the fans as the half-time whistle went. With real-fire in the boots of every player, KKZ had a feeling of mission accomplished as they entered the half-time team talk. Prem, who initially was our sub, changed his mind and slipped on a white opponent jersey to help them out from their woeful performance.
In the 2nd half, KKZ forgot the golden words said by Achu, "Do not slack after half -time because thatz where everything goes wrong" and did exactly that. Everybody just switched off and the opponents, havin prem as their last man decided to bring the game to us and atacked relentlessly. KKZ fell short as 2 unnecessary goals were conceded and robbed Suresh and Jayraj of their clean sheet. Suresh subbed Jayraj as goalkeeper and Faizal moved into defence for the whole of the 2nd half. A furious Nash, blasted the whole team on the field to buck up and he was not going to handle this kind of lacklusture attitude. Once again, kamikaze got of the backfoot and slowly started to dominate again. The 6th goal that killed off all possible motivation and idea of a comeback came through Dinesh who got on the scoresheet again. KKZ won a corner and Ismail floated in a corner and the height was the only thing that stopped vinnie from heading it into the back of the net, skided of the back of his head only to be met with a bullet of a header from Dinesh. He would be looking back at that moment and smiling at his effort. The game took a monotonous tone after that and it was all touches and passes to keep possession until Jayraj subbed Hari. Seelan, hit a low pass to ghazali and he dribbled on the right again but this time no wonder goal but instead floated in a cross into the box. A defender's feeble to head clear the ball resulted in an unmarked Jayraj moving on from the far post to score from his first touch as a sub. Long time coming, he finally got on the scoresheet and that with the look on the opponent's faces summed up the game with KKZ extending their winning streak to 5. A proud manager, Haresh congratulated all the players for putting up such a performance even in the absence of key players and this reflected on kamikaze as being a versatile team.
Match Stats:
Final Score: Kamikaze 7 - Manjan FC 2 (5-0)
Goals: Dinesh(2) Ghazali (1) Ismail (1) Vicky(1) Faizal(1) Jayraj(1)
Assists: Seelan(1) Ghazali(1) Vinnie(1)
Overall Standings:
Goals:
(4): Haresh
(3): Nayee
(2): Barathi, Vicky, Dinesh Manjan, Ghaz
(1): Gerard, Vinnie, Satheesh, Jayraj, Ismail, Faizal(East)
Assists
(3): Anand Spaceship, Barathi
(2): Gerard
(1): Haresh, Seelan, Vicky, Vinnie, Ghaz, Habib
MOM
(3):Nash
(1):Gerard, Manjo, Anand Spaceship, Francis Pow
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