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I-League 2nd Div: After fan trouble & loss to Kerala Blasters, Ozone FC qualify for final round

Ozone FC Bengaluru made the final round of the second division I-League despite losing 0-1 to Kerala Blasters.

The Ozone FC Bengaluru team after it won the BDFA Super Division (Image: Facebook)

Bengaluru, May 13: Sampathkumar Kuttymani was down on his knees in the Ozone FC Bengaluru dressing room, his hands folded in prayer. About fifteen minutes before he sat down to express his gratitude to the Almighty, the forward had shot a left-footer straight at a Kerala Blasters (reserves) defender after the opposition goalkeeper Avijit Kar punched the ball towards him. Had Kuttymani converted the open-goal chance, Ozone would have found their equaliser in their final Second Division I-League match and boosted their chances of qualifying for the final round.

Despite Kuttymani's glaring miss and the 0-1 loss to Blasters 'B', Ozone eventually progressed. FC Kerala, the other team in contention for a spot among the final four, lost 2-4 to Fateh Hyderabad in Ananthapur and it was only about 10 minutes after the game that Ozone knew their fate.

After Sunday's (May 13) results, Ozone earned their slot in the final four from Group B with 19 points in 10 games.

They are not even the group toppers, imagine! Blasters topped the group with 21 points but they cannot qualify for the final round as they are an Indian Super League (ISL) reserve side, who are playing the second division only to make up for the numbers. FC Kerala too had 19 but their inferior head-to-head record meant they dropped to third behind Ozone.

"I am pretty disappointed to be qualifying like this actually," Ozone coach David Booth said after the game. "We did not play well at all today and it was probably because of the pressure of clinching a win in our last game that the boys fell to Blasters. However, sometimes in football you need luck to achieve great things and luck was on our side today. Now, we approach the final round knowing we've a lot of things to improve on."

The final round will be played in Bengaluru, the FSV Arena in Hennur most like, on May 24, 27 and 30.

Robert De Souza of Ozone FC Bengaluru (Image: Facebook)

10-man Ozone lose

But at the Bangalore Football Stadium on Sunday, Ozone could count themselves lucky. They lost their captain Vignesh G due to a suspension in the squad and were reduced to 10 after Vinil Poojary was sent off for a second booking.

The goal came in the 51st minute, four minutes before Ozone went one man down. Sahal Abdul Samad, Blasters' attacking midfielder played a through ball to striker Suraj Rawat on the right. Ozone goalkeeper Abhishek Das stepped out of his position to neutralise the threat and Rawat chipped it over the goalkeeper from the edge of the box to give Blasters the lead.

Ozone did not make use of their chances clearly. Robert de Souza's glance into an open goal was deflected wide and he even saw a free-kick in the 90th minute bounce off the left post. Not to forget, they could have found themselves trailing in the first half itselfafter defender Lenstan Afonso committed two gaffes, letting the Blasters strikers off the hook. If not for Das clearing away the danger by venturing out of his box, Ozone would have lost the plot earlier itself. And at that moment, FC Kerala were leading 2-0 over Hyderabad.

Referee Senthil Nathan S gave them some additional time and allowed them to take three successive corners and Ozone still came up second best.

Strangely, the second best team has emerged on top yet again. And that's Indian football. Remember Chennaiyin FC?

(Fun fact: Ozonegroup were Chennaiyin FC's principal sponsors for three years.)

Chairs thrown at Blasters fans

Two disorderly men flung plastic chairs at the Blasters' faithful after the visitors took the lead. The men, who were allegedly in an inebriated state, took offence to the Manjappada's celebrations going overboard after Rawat's goal.

There were no cops present at the venue as they were all on election duty. About half an hour after the scuffle broke out, three policemen and a lady constable from the Ashok Nagar Police Station pacified the Manjappada, Blasters' fan group, and booted out the two men who caused the unrest.

Ozone team manager Shanthanu Bannerjee defended the club saying they had provided ample security for the fans. "These incidents should not have happened," Banerjee said. "During the last four games, we didn't face anything of this sort. We had four policemen today but they were downstairs because as per AIFF rules you have to man the competition area. We had applied for more police personnel two weeks ago but due to elections, they were not able to post more of them."

That, however, didn't stop Manjappada from blaming Ozone for the assault on the fans on social media.

Story first published: Sunday, May 13, 2018, 20:08 [IST]
Other articles published on May 13, 2018