Category: Indian Women’s League

by Abhishek Shukla

IWL: Karishma’s hat-trick sends East Bengal packing against Kickstart FC

BENGALURU: Karishma Shirvoikar scored the first hat-trick of the IWL 2023-24 season to guide Kickstart FC to a cushy 3-1 win over East Bengal at the Bangalore Football Stadium on Saturday, December 16, 2023. Last year’s finalists, Kickstart FC have now moved to the top of the table after two rounds with six points in their kitty.

Kickstart’s campaign on the home turf today wasn’t perhaps as comfortable as the scoreline looked in the end. The visitors did play their part, often commendably, and made the necessary noise in the rival area goalmouth. But while most of it proved to be much ado about nothing, Kickstart were more focussed and did their job well when it came to doing the right things.

But the player who made all the difference was Karishma, with her constant probes through the right from the very beginning. With a vulnerable defence, East Bengal failed to stop the National Team footballer and paid heavily for it. Had she been a little more accurate, Karishma could have finished the day with a couple of more goals in her pocket. But what she did was enough to fetch her team three points.

Karishma missed at least two chances before she could breach the East Bengal defence five minutes before the half time. Two defenders were close on Karishma, but she did well to shield the ball and send it to the far corner.

East Bengal, who won their first match against Sports Odisha, made some inroads in the second half though none of them proved fruitful. Finally, it was Karishma again who frustrated the red and golden brigade with the second goal in the 69th minute. She did well to get past two defenders, but her shot didn’t carry the expected punch. Yet it found the net as East Bengal goalkeeper Keisham Melody Chanu wasn’t as quick to anticipate the shot as she was expected to be.

East Bengal posed some threat for a brief period when the match entered the last five-minute phase. Junior international Sulanjana Raul, who came on as a substitute and brought some life into the East Bengal attacks, displayed her fine skills when she guided a long ball into the net with a deft angular shot. But then, if East Bengal were hoping to make a grand comeback, it wasn’t on the cards. Karishma slammed in another goal on the run to complete her hat-trick and put the issue beyond the Kolkata team’s reach.

by Abhishek Shukla

IWL: Kickstart FC’s campaign kicks off with a smooth win

NEW DELHI: The opening match of the 2023-24 Indian Women’s League at the Ambedkar Stadium on Saturday, December 9, 2023, was a sheer mismatch, to say the least. Last year’s runners-up Kickstart FC were all at ease against hosts HOPS FC before running away with a 3-0 victory.

In stark contrast, HOPS FC neither hopped nor jumped. Instead, they limped and struggled to a defeat, the margin of which could have easily been bigger. Barring a couple of shots that hit the crossbar and the post, the home side did little of note that could have cheered up the handful of spectators in the stands. However, their Ghanaian recruits, midfielder Gladys Amfobea and striker Fredrica Torkudzor, have the potential to help the team grow shortly.

Kickstart are a far more composed side with serious intentions to have a go at the title, which they lost to Gokulam Kerala FC last year. A few losses of players in the transfer market notwithstanding, the Karnataka side have revamped their side with fresh recruits and could be expected to do better as the season progresses. Their two Nepalese strikers, Dipa Shahi and Preeti Rai, are smooth operators and often play intelligent passes in the attacking zone.

Karishma Purushottam opened the scoring for the winners in the 13th minute with a delicate shot to the top corner of the right. But the fact that she was allowed to grab the ball and take a shot was a mistake by the HOPS defence as the ball should have been cleared easily. It was the first goal of the IWL 2023-24 as the opening match between Gokulam Kerala FC and Sethu FC ended in a goalless draw in Kozhikode on Friday.

Ten minutes later came the second goal, this time Sushmita Lepcha made her way through the defence before finding the target. Thereafter, Kickstart FC made several inroads, but a lack of decision-making in front of the rival goal let them down.

Things didn’t change in the second half, with the winners attacking relentlessly and HOPS surviving by the skin of their teeth. They succumbed again in the 64th minute with a goal that left even the scorer herself surprised. Substitute Yumlembam Pakpi Devi perhaps wasn’t planning a straight attempt at the goal; she probably went for a cross, but the ball swung in to find the net most impressively. It was certainly the best goal of the match.