CHENNAI: Order a coffin and find a grave digger! It’s almost time to give Chennaiyin’s title defence a ceremonial burial.
Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Mumbai City FC at JN Stadium was their fifth of the season. With a third of matches played, they have a solitary point.
Coach John Gregory had earlier earmarked 30 as the magic number to ensure a spot in the semifinals — that was the points the fourth-placed team had last year. Chennaiyin now need 29 from their remaining games to get there — at least 10 wins from 12 games. For a team struggling to get a shot on target, the task appears impossible.
One would have expected a bunch facing such a predicament to show some urgency. Instead, Chennaiyin were lethargic and let the game take a course that. String together meaningless passes, dominate possession, watch it go to waste in the final third and concede the softest of goals.
On Saturday, all they had to show for their domination of possession and for completing nearly 200 more passes than their opponents was a lone shot on target. Gregory, by naming an unchanged XI from the one that lost 1-2 to ATK last week, chose to believe that it was a matter of time before his team started collecting points. His team repeated the same mistakes.
Mumbai coach Jorge Costa came in with a plan that he might as well have borrowed from his one-time manager Jose Mourinho. His team had an early lead, in the 20th minute. Rafael Bastos outmuscled opponents and sprayed the ball out wide for Senegalese winger Modou Sougou.
His shot from the left should not have posed much of a problem to Chennaiyin custodian Karanjit Singh but his parry fell straight back into Sougou’s path. Despite a couple of defenders around him, he had all the time in the world to poke it into the net.
Then Mumbai sat back, ensuring that there was always men behind the ball. The second half mostly followed the same pattern, a ponderous Chennaiyin attack breaking down near the Mumbai box, followed by a yellow shirt lumping the ball forward.
The closest Chennaiyin came was in the 62nd minute when Palestinian striker Carlos Salom found the upright after some good work down the left by Raphael Augusto. Gregory threw in all his attacking options — Jeje Lalpekhlua, Gregory Arnolin — yet was unable to find that elusive goal. Mumbai are now fifth with 10 points from six games.