November 12, 2022, Sunil Chhetri:
“We won six trophies in the first six years of our existence. We were flying! We were… sorry… we were the baaps from India. When (opponents) came to warm up they used to look at us, ‘ye aa gaya‘ (Oh, they’re here.) We used to walk like this (head held high, chest puffed out) and at that time someone told me that the more good years you have, the closer you are to failure. Because that’s life,” she said during a talk show hosted by CRED.
*****
January 6, 2023, NorthEast United vs Bengaluru FC:
Seventh in 2020-21. Sixth in 2021-22 (when only the top four made the playoffs). And now, 12 games into 2022-23, they were ninth. His record made an abysmal reading: three wins, one draw, eight losses; ten points, and a goal difference of -9.
Failure didn’t quite cover it.
Going into the reverse fixture against NorthEast in Guwahati, Bengaluru FC looked down and out. After winning the Durand Cup in pre-season, and then the season opener against NorthEast in Bengaluru, it looked like they were back, but it had been a false dawn. A fact only underscored by what had transpired in their last game before the trip to Guwahati, a 2-1 loss to a woeful East Bengal side, a 92nd-minute free kick from their former star Cleiton Silva sealing the deal. That had completed East Bengal’s double over Bengaluru – the first time in three ISL seasons that they had beaten someone twice in the same season.
Bengaluru was losing games to careless mistakes at times, they were being outplayed at others. If there was a way to lose points, Bengaluru inevitably found it.
12 games. 10 points. Nineth.
As the match progressed you could see why they were 9th. Sivasakthi Narayanan had given them the lead with a stunning finish, his first ISL goal, but for all their dominance they had been unable to stretch the score. Just after the hour mark, they conceded: Romain Philippoteaux smoothly flicked the ball under a free-kick wall to make it 1-1. It was the kind of draw that doubled as a punch, the kind of goal conceded by teams with nothing going for them.
Good, but not nearly good enough. This was going to be the story of her season, wasn’t it? If you can’t get over the leaky ship that was NorthEast United (at the time, and all season), why bother?
Enter, flying from inside left, Alan Costa. With the clock ticking 93:04, he rose high to head in Udanta Singh’s cross. The commentator noted, ‘Is that top-six dream back on the cards?’
13 games. 13 points Eighth. The dream was on, now.
*****
November 12, 2022, Sunil Chhetri (cont.):
“Now when we’re having a hard time, the last two years, we didn’t do well… I always remind my boys: the more bad days they’re going to have, *this* is much closer to success.
“You won’t be happy every day. You won’t be sad every day. But you have to keep it up every day. When you succeed, the only fight is… ‘Not today, I won’t lose.'” today. Maybe tomorrow, but not today.'”
Brash genius Sunil Chhetri helps Bengaluru FC beat Kerala Blasters
*****
March 12, 2023, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu:
“Me, Sandesh (Jhingan), Chhetri bhai, we dreamed it. There were nights in December when I dreamed of being in the final and it happened. The belief was always there… that’s football, things can change very fast”. Gurpreet told reporters in the mixed zone after Bengaluru beat Mumbai City FC in the semi-finals.
Captain, leader, goalkeeper: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu enters a new chapter with Bengaluru FC
They had kept at it, and success had come. Slowly and inexorably, it culminated in this wonderful save-led penalty shootout victory for Gurpreet against the most dominant team this league has ever seen. The best part? They had gone head-to-head with Mumbai City three times in the 2023 calendar year and came out on top twice. The one they lost, they won on penalties.
They not only won, but they played good football. The streak that had started with the last-minute rescue mission against NorthEast and continued through some rather lackluster performances had seen them grow bigger and bigger. The results kept coming and the performances kept getting better.
Simon Grayson made small tactical adjustments: he pushed Javi Hernández deeper to give him more ball, put in Rohit Kumar to bring energy and dynamism to the central midfield and dropped two central ideas: press high and retain possession. “What good is possession if you’re not going to do anything with it?” he asked ESPN (rhetorically). He also made a big personnel change: he dropped Chhetri and put Sivasakthi up. Sivasakthi scored at his whim, and when the decisive moment came, so did an angry Chhetri who tried to try from the bench.
Ten wins in a row. A victory on penalties in the eleventh. From ninth to third to finalists. A knockout victory that came under the most dramatic of circumstances. From title contenders to title contenders once again, this has been quite an arc.
It’s not what this team is used to. The last two ISL finals Bengaluru had made had been brilliant during the season; leading the league stage on both occasions.
“(In those seasons), we were dominating the league. This time, we started at the bottom. It feels special.”
March 14, 2023, Sandesh Jhingan:
“Defeat is such a powerful thing. But it’s always up to you, how you take it. It can break your confidence, but at the same time it can give you energy. If you take it the right way, it can take you places you never thought you could (reach We didn’t let (the losses affect us negatively),” Jhingan told ESPN.
“There was a boiling aggression inside of us that we need to change, instead of (wallowing) and saying ‘why is this happening to us?’ That change was magical. We were ninth in the table but we kept training as if we were going for the title. Those moments in training, after games when we talked to each other, it was always very positive. We always knew it would change, because we weren’t being dominated. No one would come to our house and intimidate or overwhelm us 3, 4-0. They were small (margins).”
it had been true. Aside from a hidden 4-0 win at the hands of Mumbai, and a 3-0 win against defending champions Hyderabad, they kept the score tight.
Looking back, however, he (and Gurpreet, Chhetri and Aleksandar Jovanovic) identifies Costa’s Guwahati winner as the only tangible turning point. The night they ‘knew’ there was a comeback. After that humiliating defeat in Mumbai, they had beaten Goa only to suffer another losing streak, including thrashing of Hyderabad and the latest heartbreak of East Bengal. “God was testing us (with the mockery of Goa’s victory). ‘You are working hard now, let’s see if you can continue.’ It’s life’s way of grinding you down to know if you’re good (enough) or not.”
But when Costa thundered on that header at NorthEast, they knew… were good enough.
****
March 18, 2023. The fan:
Close your eyes. Feel the dressing room. There is an hour left for the start of the game. The Bengaluru team is in the locker room. The atmosphere is off the charts. They have fought their way here, through defeat, through controversy, through doubt. Keep those eyes closed. Dive in.
Now you can almost hear that voice now: “Guys, not today… We won’t lose today.”
