Viva Kerala's wait for a victory continues in the I-League this season.
On Saturday at the Jawahar Municipal Stadium, the host drew with HASC, Bangalore, 1-1. After J. Murali scored from the spot for the visiting side in the 51st minute, P.K. Anil Kumar, named Man-of-the-Match later, equalised for Viva the very next minute.
While this was the third 1-1 scoreline in a row for Viva, it was the first draw for HASC, making its debut in India's premier football league.
HASC now has a creditable seven points from four games, while Viva has three, also from four matches.
For the second time within a week, the Viva men must have left this ground feeling that they should have won, as they had several opportunities to score, more than the rival, which also looked keen to attack.
The second-half saw the match turning a bit rough, but thankfully the action didn't slow down. HASC was reduced to 10 men in the last 10 minutes, as its speedy striker Xavier Vijay Kumar picked up his second yellow card of the day.
Xavier, along with the wily Malengamba Meitei, R.C. Prakash and P. Rajendra Prasad had tested the Viva defence on quite a few occasions.
At the other end, Anil, C.S. Sabeeth and Felix Chimaokwu posed an even bigger danger for HASC, and they were well backed up by the tireless T. Karma from the midfield.
It was Sherin Sam's foul on Liliyan Kenneth, following an excellent through ball that resulted in the penalty.
Viva, however, came right back through one of its many counter-attacks. Chimaokwu's cross from the right found Anil, whose header from close in beat the HASC custodian, P. Pramod.
