Guwahati, October 1 (AGENCIES): Following a gala opening ceremony, NorthEast United FC started their ISL 3.0 campaign on a winning note with a 1-0 win over Kerala Blasters at Guwahati today. New star signing Katsumi Yusa scored the solitary goal of the match early in the second half to give the hosts a well-deserved win. The third edition of the ISL kicked off with the celebrations that the ISL has come to be known for - dance performances from bollywood stars Jacqueline Fernandez and Alia Bhatt preceded the opening match between hosts North East United owned by John Abraham and Sachin Tendulkar's Kerala Blasters FC at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Guwahati. The match began with Kerala looking happy to soak up the pressure during the first 15 minutes as North East kept most of the possession. The hosts tried to make inroads into the box through new star signing Katsumi Yusa aided by long balls from Mailson Alves and Gustavo Lazzaretti. Kerala started the second half brightly as Jhingan's overlap down the right had Antonio German with a shot on the goal, but the North East's defenders were quick to close him down. But North East quickly regained their control over the ball as some good work from Rowlin Borges found Holicharan down the right, but the 22-year old flashed the ball across the face of the goal missing both Velez and Katsumi. Soon in the 55th minute, Velez took out Jhingan down the left and played a perfect ball towards the far post where Katsumi was lurking, and with centre back Ishfaq and goalie Stack nowhere near him, the Japanese rolled the ball into an open net to score the first goal of the 2016 ISL. Subrata Paul then nearly gifted a goal back to Kerala in the 62nd minute when his poor clearance landed for German, with his back to the goal, to curl the ball into an empty net.
