The choice of the ISL's littlest club as season-opener hosts for Indian football's three-month alternate universe proved to be a people-pleaser. The stands were filled to capacity, the crowd was committed and the home team victorious. Three quarters of the 27,000-plus spectators wearing the classy NorthEast United (NEUFC) white jersey became the perfect backdrop for the wild psychedelic colours that formed the palette of the opening ceremony and then the rich green of the football pitch that finally emerged after a large round of fireworks, laser lights, cardboard cutouts, balloons. Hot air circled around the expansive Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium on a sticky October night, most of it finding its way into their words that floated over the PA system.
What TV couldn't see was the real thing -- men and women enjoying the bling-ridden evening entertainment, listening to the "mainlanders" try to flatter them a little and finally watching NEUFC, the youngest team of this ISL, win the season opener 1-0. With everyone happy to repeat the coincidences that keep sports fans going -- the team that has hosted the ISL opener every year has won it.
As far as football matches go, it was not riveting stuff, with only slight flashes of creativity and displays of skill, the first half flat. It was not that NorthEast United were not trying: they pushed from the start, creating chances but failing to finish while Kerala Blasters operated on a far lower key, playing for a long while, as if on their heels. What made the evening vital was not the heavyweight celebrities occupying the best seats but the audience around them. ISL worker-bees say that there is no crowd like Guwahati's anywhere else in the country -- committed, involved, full-throated, but not ugly. With a large number of women fans comfortable enough to turn up to a sports event in India, voice their opinions, shout above the men if they want to without the sham disguise of noodle straps or cheerleaders to 'attract' them to their sport.
When the gates opened at 3pm, the food stalls outside the stadium were bursting with business and the guys selling rip-off NEUFC T-shirts were flying past the lines. Time standing in the queue was spent by spectators pulling on their Rs 100 team shirts, buoyed by the energy of the moment. With an hour to go for opening, the stadium was three-quarter full and when Katsumi Yusa's scored in the 55th minute, the crowd was louder than the fireworks that followed.
Katsumi, an ISL debutant, set off running like he had won the league itself, swept up into the embrace of a heaving cauldron. At the final whistle, he fell to his knees and flung back his head and raised his arms skywards. It could have been pure relief at having lasted the entire game played on a melter of Guwahati evening, which had grown men lean onto their knees inside the first 15 minutes of the match. Or maybe it was a dream ISL debut. Of slight build at 5ft6in, like many a Northeast footballer, Katsumi spent the game with short bursts of sprints, feints and getting pushed, knocked and tripped over by bigger men in defence. He stood his ground and even though Didier Zokora is considered the home team's 'marquee' signing, it was Argentine Nicolas Velez on the left, along with Katsumi, who led the waves of attacks trying to create opportunities. Velez is already "Nicolas" to older members of the crowd, a player who glides and swerves as if in a private football pitch of his own. On Saturday, night he was water to Katsumi's mercury, the goal arriving as he floated one in across goal with Katsumi sharp on the finish.
Coach Nico Vingada had played with six overseas players and five Indians, saying the ISL should push for an eventual 7-4 Indian-overseas balance to make the league really mean something for Indian football. Defender Robin Gurung, who has played three straight seasons for NEUFC, laughed later, saying that this time his ISL coach had toned down the team's often suicidal all-out attack mode. The defensive line stayed firm even though goalkeeper Subrata Paul had one nightmare moment -- coming off his line, fumbling at the edge of the box, leaving his goal open and defenders horrified. Fortunately for them, Kerala Blasters' Kervens Belfort's shot on goal went wide. Vingada turned up on the field in a suit and tie, and at the post-match briefing, chose to first provide a succinct summary of the match before taking questions. Everything in Guwahati, to him with coaching experience from Asia and Europe, had been "intense..." with "too much enthusiasm" of the crowd. His team he said were playing at "70%". Closer to 100, and "too much enthusiasm" crowd would bring the roof down.
The opening ceremony, shown on television to the wider nation, featured three Bollywood stars bursting into a set of aerobic-exercise-dances to around four 'hit' songs for about a minute each. A "riot" of colour was no doubt intended to be the central theme, but it ended up looking like combination of 1970s psychedelia and 1980s Jeetendra songs featuring feather dusters and earthen pots. The movie stars were welcomed and their moves roared at, but it was eventually intended for "mainland" television. While the rest of the country watched the eye-blinding opening, the ground was being cleared for the game and Guwahati focused its attention on finer things. The Shillong Chamber Choir got the entire crowd to their feet, respectful and silent, as they sang the Assam state anthem, O Mur Apunar Desh. It then followed it up with Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk and the national anthem, with Jana Gana Mana sung to perfect time, not like the prolonged doleful/ghazal version heard over other televised sporting events.
As the day wound down, Guwahati carried traces of what the ISL opener meant for the city. Sports good shops had stayed open till close to 10.30pm trying to sell their last NEUFC jersey of the day; it was the white of those shirts on straggling spectators that were to light up dim street corners as the fans headed home. ISL3 has begun and in fan-sense, NEUFC's faithful have set the standard.