ISL 4: FC Pune City held by Kerala Blasters

Kochi: David James began his second innings at Kerala Blasters with a terrific comeback, a 1-1 draw, against Pune City at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Thursday.

Dutch striker Mark Sifneos scored the equaliser in the 73rd minute after Marcelinho had fired Pune into the lead with a pure finish on 33 minutes.
Kerala’s first season hero James had made a purposeful start to his second spell here while a free-scoring Pune that had convincingly won its last two matches, were finally halted by the unlikeliest of oppositions.

It was a classic game of two halves; the first in which Kerala were in utter disarray, lacking hunger or verve to match, let alone overwhelm, a team of Pune’s tenacity. It was also in this period that the home players were stooped in shame as their own fans booed them.

Then came a half of pure joy that seemed to wipe out any fragment of indecision from Kerala’s game as they barged out like a bunch of savages, ready to feast upon anything that stood in their path to freedom.

Dimitar Berbatov had started as he made a return from a calf injury but the Bulgarian was far removed from the archetypical calmness in the middle and he was duly taken off after the dismal first half.

It was no coincidence that Kerala’s transformation after the break overlapped with the introduction of their new signing Keziron Kizito. The Ugandan midfielder couldn’t have asked for a bigger stage to announce his arrival and not he had a decisive role in the equaliser.

Kizito had released Courage Pekuson with a delectable through ball from near the half-way line and the Ghanaian found an unmarked Sifneos with an inch-perfect pull-back. The Dutchman applied a refined left-foot finish to alter the script altogether.

Kerala had stormed in after the equaliser and Sifneos nearly poked in a second but Jackichand’s deflected pass after a Pekuson pull-back was a tad too heavy. Pekuson too came close but his effort off a rebound narrowly missed the far post.
But for all their attacking prowess, Pune were not as clinical as they were in recent games.