All season, Liston Colaco tried his favourite move: cutting in from the left and letting fly. It hadn’t worked. Till it did, twice on a hot and muggy Monday evening in Kozhikode.
Colaco had lost his place in the ATK Mohun Bagan starting line-up, beginning only one of the Indian Super League (ISL) champions’ last six games. The player who loved running at defenders, whose accurate long-rangers and assists lit up the 2021-22 ISL – ‘Colaco, golazo’ became one of the more used phrases by television commentators in the second bio-bubble season – was indecisive in passing and struggling with his first touch.
One goal and four assists was a poor return from 1648 minutes spread over 24 ISL games. He was dropped by India head coach Igor Stimac for last month’s three-nation tournament in Imphal. In 2021-22, Colaco had got 1715 minutes in 22 games producing eight goals and five assists.
Magical long-rangers
So, when, at the EMS Stadium looking worse for the wear, Hugo Boumous back-passed and Colaco took two steps before putting his laces through the ball, few would have expected such a connection. The shot, from the left edge of the penalty area, swerved across the face of goal and bent in at the far post.
Just to show that was no fluke, Colaco did it again. This time, to his accuracy from distance, he showed the technique and trickery that got him noticed at Hyderabad FC in 2020-21. The kind that sent Scott Neville, an A-League veteran on duty with East Bengal, the wrong way; the kind that fetched a goal against NorthEast United. Even as he received Ashish Rai’s crossfield pass, Colaco went past Gokulam Kerala FC right-back Subhankar Adhikary. This was the sort of control he had lacked all ISL season. From nearly 25 yards, Colaco found the target. It was like the goal he had scored against FC Goa in 2021-22, beating their right-back Seriton Fernandes. One that got the commentators excited and saying you know what.
With two wondrous goals, Colaco had killed the ATK Mohun Bagan-Gokulam Kerala FC Super Cup game by the 27th minute. But he was far from done. In his first start since the first leg of the semi-final against Hyderabad FC, the 24-year-old lasted the full game and with a block and pass sent Boumous on his way to set up the fourth goal which Manvir Singh scored. Boumous had got the third and Kiyan Nassiri the fifth in the 5-1 win against the only team to have retained the I-League. With a record 21-game unbeaten run to boot. Between Singh and Nassiri, Sergio Mendigutxia headed in for the local team who let in so many for the first time in their brief history.
It was the most ATK Mohun Bagan, struggling for goals, had scored since beating Kerala Blasters 5-2 away last October. In the hunt for another trophy, and an AFC Cup half-berth, they wouldn’t mind finding their scoring boots on setting foot in Kerala again.
Gokulam Kerala had surprised ATK Mohun Bagan 4-2 in an AFC Cup group game last May at Salt Lake stadium. It was also the match where ATK Mohun Bagan central defender Tiri suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury which ruled out the Spaniard for the rest of the season. Tiri returned to action as a 64th-minute replacement for Federico Gallego on Monday.
After the defeat, then Gokulam Kerala FC coach Vincenzo Alberto Annese had said Real Kashmir, battling relegation in the I-League, had caused them more problems than ATK Mohun Bagan. After ATK Mohun Bagan recovered to make the inter-zonal semi-finals, the normally reticent Juan Ferrando said games were won on the pitch and not at press conferences.
Ferrando is still in charge but Annese has moved on. Gokulam Kerala FC coach Francesc Bonet had termed the Super Cup as an opportunity to show that they could compete against ISL teams. Colaco had other ideas.
From a young age, the player from Darvolim in South Goa had been told he was good. Through an ordinary season, he didn’t stop believing that. “It is not how you begin but how you end a season, “ Colaco had said, flashing his ISL winners’ medal 17 nights ago in Margao.
In the final against Bengaluru FC, Colaco, a second-half substitute, had produced a stinger which Gurpreet Singh Sandhu barely managed to keep out. The rebound had fallen favourably for Dimitri Petratos but ATK Mohun Bagan’s hero of the night had failed to knock it in. Colaco then produced a superb challenge to deny Udanta Singh and coolly converted his penalty in the tie-breaker. But it was far from bending a game to his will. That Colaco did on Monday.
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