Mid-season Wrap: Mohun Bagan Disappoint and Other Stories

The Indian domestic football season is at its halfway point. While most of the media attention is focussed on the more glamourised Indian Super League, the I-League, India’s top tier till the recent restructuring, is generating plenty of engaging storylines and drama on the pitch. Before the league leaders, Minerva Punjab FC, begin the second half of their campaign we examine five plot lines that are worth keeping an eye on down the home stretch. 

Minerva Vs Neroca

For the second season running it is the new clubs that have established, with more credibility, their desire to fight for the championship. Aizawl FC had a remarkable run last year and the club’s triumph was compared to Leicester City’s title-winning 2015-16 season in the English Premier League. This season it has been the debutants from Imphal, Neroca FC, and Punjab’s sole representatives in the top flight that are occupying the top two positions in the league table. Minerva (22 points) are currently a point ahead of Neroca but have played two games fewer. The Chandigarh-based outfit has already notched up an impressive win against Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan and have built their side around young players, high levels of physical fitness and a stingy defence that has conceded the least goals in the league. With limited resources at their disposal both clubs have chosen to stay away from the regular pattern of signing big-name players. Instead, they have focussed on developing robust youth development programmes and building teams that work as cohesive units rather than rallying around stars. 

O, Kolkata!

Big clubs, big money, big pulling power and a beautifully renovated Salt Lake Stadium should have meant big results for East Bengal and Mohun Bagan. When Khalid Jamil, who won the league with Aizawl FC last season, joined East Bengal with several key players in tow he automatically made the club favourites in the league. But defeats in both Kolkata derbies mean the Red and Gold are just about keeping pace with the league leaders. Everything is fair game in Kolkata football. From talk of black magic to club-run newspapers heaping criticism on the club’s own coaches. Sanjoy Sen resigned after three years as head coach of Bagan and the loss of the talismanic Sony Norde compounded the misery. Although Yuta Kinowaki’s exceptional control of the midfield in the first derby and a brilliant team effort in the second helped Bagan claim full derby honours, the team has looked uninspired in most of its other fixtures. With so much talk about the possibility of joining the ISL doing the rounds it seems neither club can find the motivation needed to compete in the league they are currently inhabiting. For the tens of thousands of fans who show up unfailingly to support their clubs, the constant instability is a time-honoured reality that shows no signs of letting up. 

Global Game

With players from 28 countries (India included) across five continents, the I-League puts some of India’s best footballing talent up against those who have come though similar development processes globally. These players may not have reached the highest levels of football but many of them are widely-travelled, speak multiple languages and also afford the Indian boys a chance to learn through their experiences. For Aryn Williams of Neroca FC coming to India was a chance to discover old roots. His grandparents lived in Mumbai. For 21-year-old Chencho Gyaltsen, already Bhutan’s leading international goalscorer, it is an opportunity to act as am ambassador for Bhutanese football and a stepping stone to more lucrative playing deals. Mohun Bagan’s Australian midfielder Cameron Watson has played over 100 games in the A-League, one of the strongest league competitors in Asia. His composure and control in the space between defence and attack has been a joy to watch. Mahmoud Amnah’s home town, Aleppo, has been destroyed by war. The key player at East Bengal is, perhaps, more fortunate than the millions of Syrian who have been forced to seek refuge overseas and have only hope of one day returning to their professional lives. Whether in a footballing sense or as windows into the outside world, these journeymen footballers add a tremendous value to the Indian game.  

Super Cup at the End of the Tunnel 

Nothing is as exciting as the prospect of the ISL and I-League battling it out with one another to establish national supremacy. Although the final format of the league has not been officially confirmed, it is likely to feature eight teams from each league playing in a round-robin format followed by knockout rounds in the final stages. The tournament is likely to be held between mid-March and end-April 2018 and will replace what is now known as the Federation Cup. With much smaller budgets and fewer resources at their disposal the I-League clubs will be the underdogs. The Super League will offer rewards—prize money, qualification for Asian competition and most of all bragging rights. The inaugural Super Cup will set the tone for the planned merger of the two league and the creation of a cohesive football structure in the country. With its relatively smooth transition from I-League to ISL this season, Bengularu FC have already proved that these clubs can compete. How will the present I-League stack up against its much richer young offshoot? At the end of the season we will be able finally be able to say for sure. 

Not Quite Hitting Bullseye

The Indian Arrows were reinstated this season in a revival of a well-intentioned earlier experiment that fizzled out because of lack of funds. That earlier Arrows side produced several players who are now either in the national team or knocking on its doors. The current side is made up of a generation of first—its core is the under-17 team that became the first Indian side to play in any World Cup. The Arrows started with a bang—a 3-0 drubbing of Chennai City FC. Going up against senior players has not been easy for the youngsters but they have been consistently competitive and no other team has approached them with a sense of complacency. Nongdamba Naorem’s brilliant individual effort against Shillong Lajong—he beat five Lajong defenders before calmly slotting the ball past the keeper—is likely to be voted goal of the season and is only one indicator of how well this young team has done to compete with the big boys. With the I-League pretty much relegated to the position of the nation’s second tier, there should be no reason for the experiment not to continue to give younger players the chance of regular, competitive football.