The Indian Super League has created a new wave of football furore in India since its inception and season four promised to be better than its predecessors.
So far, it has done more than enough to live up to expectations.
ISL 2018 features ten teams as Bengaluru FC and Jamshedpur FC joined the eight previous teams to expand the tournament. It was not just the teams that were expanded as the competition went from two months to nearly four months with all the added fixtures.
The expanded edition which is spread across two calendar years for the first time ever has been eventful both on an off the pitch for the right and wrong reasons. So here is a look at what has happened in ISL 2018 so far.
Season of Goals Galore
The first three seasons of the Indian Super League rarely witnessed high scoring matches and it looked like the current season would follow suit as it started with back to back goalless draws.
However, this season has seen some high scoring games already and so far there have already been 112 goals in the 42 games. Which means on an average, at least two goals are scored every game.
The bulk of the scoring has been done by FC Goa (20), FC Pune City (18), Bengaluru FC (18), Chennaiyin FC (15) and Mumbai City FC (13).
There have been six games in which 5 goals were scored, one game in which 6 goals were scored and two games in which 7 goals were scored overall. These matches alone contribute to nearly 45% of the goals scored this season.
The one goal however that stands out has to be Goa’s Manuel Lanzarote’s in the opening weekend. Fighting off the Chennai defence, he lobbed the keeper and the entire defence to get on the board.
Fierce Battle At The Top of The Table
Although some of the early favourites like ATK and Kerala Blasters have failed to live up to the hype, the battle to finish in the top 4 and to finish top of the table has been intense.
Bengaluru, Chennaiyin, Pune, Mumbai and Goa have been a notch above the rest of the teams and have constantly reshuffled the top 5 of the table after every match. Currently, five points separate first placed Bengaluru and fifth placed Goa with the latter having played a game less.
Even if none of the other five teams catch up to these five teams, one of these five will have to miss out on a semi-final berth.
To make matters more interesting, these teams have been getting the better of each other. With the exception of Mumbai, each of the five top teams have beaten another team in the top 5 twice. Mumbai have done that only once so far.
Alarming Standard of Refereeing
There have been plenty of positives on the pitch this season, notably the vast improvement in playing style with teams focusing more on intricate passing and movement than before.
However, the standard of refereeing has been nothing short of abysmal. Almost every manager in the league has raised an issue about the refereeing standards and yet the mistakes keep pouring in.
In a league with only 10 teams, a single point could be the difference between qualifying for the semifinal round or not. Hence, it is understandable that the managers were infuriated by the officials but none more than Pune’s coach Ranko Popovic.
Popovic ridiculed the referees by calling them ‘four jokers’ following his team’s 2-0 win over Goa as a number of decisions went for and against his team in the game. As a result of his comments, AIFF banned Popovic for four games which is even more ridiculous in a league with a maximum of just 21 games.
No Place for Racism in Football
Although the standard of refereeing has been a huge talking point this season, the biggest blotch on the face of ISL 2018 was a racism and eve-teasing issue during a game between NorthEast United and Chennaiyin at the latter’s home ground.
Following Chennai’s 3-0 win over NorthEast, a video surfaced on social media showing one particular Chennai fan getting carried away and making racist gestures at a NorthEast fan.
The football world united to condemn the incident and the celebrity owners of NorthEast and Chennaiyin, John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan respectively, also stepped in to resolve the matter.
The accused were arrested in a matter of days but it is disheartening to see such lewd behaviour in a football stadium in the 21st century.
A Mysterious Departure and a Returning Hero
Two-time finalists, Kerala Blasters, came into the season with the hope of finally winning a title and spent a lot of money assembling their squad which featured players like Dimitar Berbatov and Wes Brown.
However, things didn’t go to plan for them as they picked up just 7 points after as many league games with two humiliating defeats at the hands of Goa and Bengaluru.
Two days after Kerala’s defeat to Bengaluru on New Year’s eve, the head coach, Rene Meulensteen, left his role with the club. Rene’s departure comes as no surprise given the team’s performance but there is an air of mystery surrounding it. His departure was announced through ISL website and social media but the club didn’t thank him or announce his departure on their social media or website. This is rather odd.
Nevertheless, a day after Meulensteen’s departure, David James was announced as the new manager of Kerala Blasters.
James was a player-manager for the yellow army during the inaugural edition of the ISL when the team reached the final. He now has an uphill task to take this team to the final.
A Match Played Over Two Days
On January 3, the scheduled kick-off time of 8 PM for the game between ATK and FC Goa in Kolkata was constantly delayed. In fact, the match was delayed 5 times and instead of rescheduling the game, it went ahead in the most farcical circumstances.
The game was originally scheduled for the 31st of December but had to be postponed because the police couldn’t provide adequate security on New Year’s eve. The match was then rescheduled for January 3rd.
The Goa team left for Kolkata on January 2nd but their charted flight had to do an emergency return due to a technical issue. The team then booked a flight for 10 AM on the day of the match but their flight was delayed as a jet caught fire in the Goa airport and the runway was closed.
Goa team eventually took off in the evening and reached Kolkata at 9PM and was racing to reach the stadium. Eventually, the game went ahead with a 10:45 PM kick-off in chilly conditions.
The match also made history as it went on till around 1 AM on January 4 thus making it the first ever game in ISL to be played over two days!
This was poor organising on ISL’s part and such things need to be ironed out if the league is grow manifold in the years to come.
(Naveen Joseph is a passionate, avid and cognisant sports fan who believes that sports make the world a better place. Although content writing is his forte, he has significant experience in video production and copywriting. All of this after graduating from IIT Kharagpur. In the long run, he hopes to infect the rest of the world with his love for sports.)
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