Football
Debayan Sen 7y

Giantkillers Shivajians get Federation Cup redemption

There is a 1981 Kannada film called Geetha that is an unmissable part of the experience of watching Bengaluru FC in full flow at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru. The public announcement system, which belts out an eclectic mix of rock, pop, new age music -- most of it based on recommendations from the players and the support staff -- in the lead up to the match, goes into overdrive with an Ilayaraaja song in the voice of SP Balasubrahmanyam called 'Haadu Santosh-sakke', literally meaning 'sing for satisfaction', every time a goal is scored.

On April 22, the person handling the PA had been kept busy during Bengaluru's penultimate I-League game, with the home side belting out some solid hits on their way to a 7-0 win against a very good DSK Shivajians side. It was an evening that set a number of records for the two-time I-League champions -- the biggest one being that this was the first match they scored seven in, Sunil Chhetri among six different Indians who scored for BFC.

18 days later, it was neither the same atmosphere nor the same weather in Cuttack when the two teams came face-to-face again in the Federation Cup; Bengaluru having won their first match in the competition 3-2 against a spirited Shillong Lajong on May 8, and Shivajians taken apart by Mohun Bagan by a 4-0 margin the same day.

The possibility of seeing any result other than an easy Bengaluru victory appeared slim, especially as Shivajians coach Dave Rogers fielded a very young first eleven -- their three foreigners Juan Quero, Shane McFaul and Kim Song Yong were joined by only goalkeeper Subrata Pal and left-back Ricky Lallawmawma as the players above the age of 22 -- while Bengaluru had their strongest possible team taking the pitch at the Barabati Stadium.

Rogers is one of the younger coaches around in Indian football, and knows most of his younger players inside out. When his team was beaten hollow in Bengaluru, he came to the post-match conference and not once did he criticise his players. He said that they just had to put the experience behind and approach their next game with a positive frame of mind.

Wednesday's 2-0 win comes on the backdrop of that 7-0 defeat, a bizarre 4-4 draw with Minerva Punjab in Pune in their final I-League game of the season, and a 4-0 thrashing to start off their maiden Federation Cup campaign. Their win over Bengaluru had its share of anxious moments, but that's where senior players like Pal, Quero and second-half substitute Gouramangi Singh helped keep the nerves from getting frayed. Bengaluru, who had looked like they might race away with the match against Lajong before seeing off a late surge from their opponents on Monday, dominated large portions of the game, and showed glimpses of some delightful football from time to time.

The result in the end was vindication of the fact that in sport, it is usually the braver, and sometimes the slightly luckier combatant that emerges victorious. Bengaluru have now lost three of the last four Federation Cup matches they have played, but more importantly, the result also heightened the fact that there isn't a gulf between teams in domestic football as it stands today.

In their giant-killing act, DSK Shivajians have once again highlighted the competitiveness of the league, and perhaps posed a question to AIFF's proposed restructuring plans for Indian football, where Bengaluru FC might find themselves in the top division and teams like DSK Shivajians could be relegated to a second division without any chance of promotion for at least seven years.

If a team with half-a-dozen players who are just starting out professionally can beat one with many names who are responsible for putting bums on seats in football stadia across India, isn't that a pretty good advertisement for the game? And if you are going to exclude the former from your plans to make the top division a more attractive proposition, are you discarding football merit altogether?

Those are questions for another day. For the moment, it is time to be sing for satisfaction at the increasing competition in the game in India.

And long may that continue.

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