I-League 2024-25: Inter Kashi start their campaign with a hard-fought win

Sporting Bengaluru fought till the end of their first I-League game.

Inter Kashi huffed and puffed before finally finding their way to a 1-0 victory over SC Bengaluru in the I-League 2024-25 at the Kalyani Stadium on November 22, 2024. 

If the season opener was a standard setter, the second was a display of the disparity that only the I-League offers — a clash between title challengers and newly promoted unknowns. The team sheets further bolstered that disparity. SC Bengaluru had promised to grow organically and give more local players a chance and their starting eleven featured just one foreigner. Inter Kashi used their full quota and even had one to spare. 

Through the first half, SC Bengaluru showed up with grit, counterattacking nous and a sprinkling of underdog pluck to keep their hosts’ ambitions grounded. There could have been no better way to welcome Antonio Lopez Habas to the I-League.

Kashi showed their cards early with Joni Kauko and Nikolas Stojanovic driving the wheels in midfield to create chances as well as hold Bengaluru at bay. Within the first 10 minutes, the pair had a chance each, and both of them shot wide, the former from outside the box and the latter inside to the left. 

Bengaluru goalkeeper Satyajit Bordoloi was Karnataka’s hero when they won the Santosh Trophy, and his first test came in the 15th minute after Edmund Lalrindika’s beautifully lobbed through ball fell to Domingo Berlanga inside the six-yard box. The Spaniard duly shot and Bordoloi made himself large to block it away with his outstretched leg.   

The threat of one-way traffic was real, and Inter Kashi’s passing patterns made it feel like a training game at times in the opening quarter. Slowly, Bengaluru grew into the game. Thomyo Simray in particular, was a constant threat on the wings with his burst of speed on the counter and forced Arindam Bhattacharya into a first save in the 19th minute. 

As Bengaluru stuck to their guns and kept up the pressure on the counter, Kashi’s frustration grew. The game became increasingly physical. and on the sidelines, Habas fumed at imaginary slights. 

Just before the half-hour mark, Bengaluru’s Jordan Lamela tested Bhattacharya once again, and then a brief impasse followed. With the game drifting towards half time, Lamela gave Kashi one last scare in injury time. His floated free kick from the left caught every Kashi player unaware, and crossed through the box, and across the goal before drifting just wide.

Football games aren’t won on paper, but sometimes the names on paper spring to life with moments of magic to turn them. And as it was, Edmund Lalrindika did just that in the 72nd to finally break the deadlock. Karthik Panicker delivered a cross into the box from the left, with the newly minted Indian international the only Kashi target in the box. Lalrindika rose high and headed low, the ball bouncing in front of Bordoloi and nestling in the net. 

The goal was enough for Kashi to break Bengaluru’s resolve. They held their opponents at arm’s length and strolled the rest of the game for a win. 

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