The second half of the season was far from straightforward. To maintain the unbeaten record against the likes of Mumbai City and ATK Mohun Bagan was far from easy but we did. Let’s walk through the close games from the league first:
We finished correctly when it mattered. Even if they couldn’t. Our shooting was shambolic but we still managed to get the winner. The winger we brought on loan from Mumbai City was an amazing godsend honestly.
Actually accurate this time out against Mumbai City FC and honestly could have been more. Them going down to 10 men helped our cause. And I honestly do not get how in India the defenders are better penalty takers than the attackers who are ACTUALLY meant to be the better penalty takers. But I couldn’t change it in time and one of our defenders took the penalty and wound up missing. When we so desperately needed an equalizer. We managed to still get back into it and our advantage finally counted when we netted the winner.
A side note is that Mumbai City FC is the Real Madrid in terms of reputation in the ISL.
Another match which seriously confused me. I once again forgot to switch takers and one of our defenders took a penalty again and missed. We did score one before half time and it stayed that way till full time. We had enough to get more and we locked them out. But it stayed at this scoreline till the end.
Something that shouldn’t have been this close but it was. After thinking I was comfotable given our domination we got pulled back by one and later on Denzell couldn’t complete his hattrick because he was offside. And by a country mile too.
Locked them out and our shooting was bad. Add to it our ON FIRE striker missing a penalty to add to it as well and I was seriously frustrated. In the end our CB from the set piece was the difference maker to give us the points.
The fact that our goals were our only shots on target baffled me. We had THIRTEEN shots and only 2 were on tartget. And one of the shots on target was the PENALTY which isn’t exactly open play. They did somehow pull one back through that Shetty guy who is a youth talent for them. He is honestly so hard to play against because he always somehow finds the net against us. But we ultimately held on.
Torrid shooting from both sides really. And I’m glad they weren’t that lethal because we barely had chances either. Our only goals were a set piece(The only shot on target) and the winner wound up being a freaking own goal after they pulled one back(Chhangte is another pain to be up against).
And here is where I have to mention that this database is so well made. Because we managed to win the League Winner’s Shield for finishing first in the ISL league phase and if we win the ISL Cup which is coming up that is the real title of ISL Champions. So before that can happen we had the Hero Super Cup to deal with.
Hero Super Cup Phase
First off was Shillong Lajong in the Hero Super Cup Second Qualifying Round. Given we’re an ISL outfit this time we started in the Second Qualifying Round. And it was a high scoring match really.
Dominant really. And I was freaking surprised to see us concede twice to someone who is barely 3 stars. Guess this is how it happens with rivalry matches. But it was straightforward to get into the group stage.
The group stage put us alongside Odisha, ATK Mohun Bagan and Kerala Blasters. It began with a very narrow win against Odisha first:
It surprised me when Denzell didn’t even finish his chances properly. And given my backup striker was injured in this moment I took a shot in the dark. I brought one of my young wingers as a striker for him instead of CAM and somehow he was the one who popped up with a goal. I’ll take it despite us being so dominant and only one goal to show for it.
Then it was a really good win against ATK Mohun Bagan.
Once again with Shetty scoring against us. He’s like our bogey player who always finds the net against us. But this time we managed to dominate so well. And our defender scored the penalty which I forgot to change AGAIN.
Then it was the match of all time against Kerala Blasters. Not because it was close but for what happened in said match
Our horrid shooting accuracy aside because the margin of victory makes it fine, the own goal that was scored has a bit of history. Issah was meant to be my Fredrick replacement but honestly he always seemed to have a mistake in him from what I said when I bought him and I always noticed that in pre season and given how badly I wanted to get rid of almost everyone after losing the Super Cup last time out to these guys and selling him to them was a weird twist of irony but watching how the own goal happened where a drilled cross was just bundled in by him. I just fell down laughing because all I had left to say was that was what he DESERVED.
Super League Cup
What’s even more annoying was I had to play Kerala Blasters once again in the Super League Cup. It was a two legged semi final and it was very dominant once again.
First Leg
Bose lost a lot of ability after his major injury near the time of the Durand Cup so it was nice to see him at the center of attention in the first leg which was a really dominant scoreline to take back home.
Second Leg
And take it back home we did with an even bigger scoreline:
The name Rogerio that you see was a random free transfer that was suggested to me which I needed for the wingers. And if you noticed the name Al-Shanar that is someone I was planning to move on because his ability has declined so badly I wanted a replacement for him so I brought Rogerio in.
And the False 9 experiment with Chatterjee was working given the fact that he assisted and scored a final goal to finish on an aggregate score of 6-2. To the final of the playoffs we go.
The final wound up being against ATK Mohun Bagan and it was as cagey as to be expected. But in the end we managed to get through it and we are now Indian Super League Winners.
Funny how the first goal was an own goal to begin with and then immediately our LB showed the attack how to finish. Then it was a bunch of yellows for us after making sure to be crunching in our challenges on most of their top players. But we managed to hold on and not let a goal slip.
Going back to the Hero Super Cup
The semi final was against Mumbai City and it was honestly a smash and grab even if the scoreline never says it.
Once again our shooting accuracy who incredibly shoddy. 2 shots on target and one of them being a penalty again. Luckily them having 11 shots and only 3 on target was even worse. It’s a “We were bad but they were worse” situation but in this case we were through.
And our Super Cup Final opponents were….Sreenidhi Deccan?
No I am very serious. It wound up being Sreenidhi Deccan from the I-League. They were favorites to be up there with us during our promotion campaign from the I-League and it felt fitting to beat them for a trophy we lost out on last time we came all this way and after a mega giant killing round to make it here this time out I needed to beat them. And beat them we did:
Shoddy finishing once again. I mean that is only 27% of our shots being on target but the domination was supremely visible as the recent winners of the Indian Super League and we managed to nab a whopping 1500 miles from this STONKING treble with Aizawl FC, this plucky team of go getters from Mizoram, led by a Mizoram native to boot too(Apuia).
All in all it was a supremely memorable season
The first time these trophies have EVER made it into this club’s trophy cabinet. And what a way to close my journey here in India’s football scene.
Current tally of miles
So our miles in the bank stands at 3430 miles after tallying the trophies and goal and win miles. This means we finally have enough to make the push to the Middle East. Let’s freaking go. And I am on the way to a Continental B license too so I am 2 badges away from the top most coaching badges in the game.