Indian Super League

[PKBasu]

This year's ISL leading club, Mumbai City, have a player (Sy Goddard, or Sai Godado) on loan from Italian Serie A side Benevento (who has also played as a youth international for Japan: his dad is English, mom Japanese but he has always said he wants to play for Japan), another player from the top tier of Moroccan football (Mourtada Fall, who is Senegalese and won the Moroccan top league title in 2012), a former Moroccan international (Ahmed Jahouh), a player on loan from Sporting Gijon which plays in Spain's second division (Hernan Santana), a player who has played for 3rd and 2nd division French teams and a top Moroccan one (Hugo Boumous), an Englishman on loan from Sydney FC in the A-League (Adam Le Fondre, who mainly played for third tier clubs in England, a few seasons for a second tier club, before moving to Sydney FC, a top Aussie club), and a 36-year-old Nigerian who played in the 2002 World Cup as a 17-year-old and then for PSG in France for several seasons but was playing lower-division football in Europe before joining ISL sides (Bartholomew Ogbeche).

Pretty dispiriting to find that the ISL has basically slotted into an international professional-football system in which it is the equivalent of a low-second or third-tier league in Europe. A very long way to go before India is competitive enough to aspire to World Cup qualification. Maybe we should try to become an Olympic side first -- as we comfortably were in the 1950s.

[prasen9]

I am generally against national quotas in any league. Except in the ISL, the board must mandate that all clubs must play at least one Indian forward. If all the goals are scored by foreigners, then we are not developing our strikers.

[prasen9]

So, after 5-6 games, Mohun Bagan is at 13 points jointly tied with Mumbai City, who have a better goal difference. East Bengal and Odisha are at the opposite end with 1 point.

[PKBasu]

Big match tonight between 3rd placed Bengaluru FC and 2nd placed ATK Mohun Bagan. Having played one match less than Mumbai (on 16 points), they respectively are on 12 and 13 points.

[prasen9]

Mohun Bagan defeated Bengaluru and kept pace with Mumbai albeit at a lower goal difference. David Wiliams scored the only goal at the 33rd minute.

It is a shame that there are no teams from Northern India. We need a team from Punjab, Chandigarh, or Delhi areas.

[PKBasu]

First loss of the season for Bengaluru FC, the team that features Sunil Chhettri. The latter had one good shot at goal, but Arindam made a fine save. A terrific goal by David Williams (an Australian player who has been Roy Krishna's team-mate at ATK since last year, and at Wellington Phoenix earlier) gave ATK Mohun Bagan the win today, and a share of the lead. (Williams has played one World Cup qualifier, against China, for Australia, albeit way back in 2008; he is now 32).

[usaindia]

Rangers to stream Indian Super League games via Facebook
https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/ran ... ngaluru-fc

[usaindia]

ATK and mumbai city fc qualified for semifinals
https://indianexpress.com/article/sport ... t-7197514/

[PKBasu]

ATK Mohun Bagan have 40 points from 19 matches, while Mumbai FC have 37, so they are both far ahead of the rest.

With one more match each to play, FC Goa and North East United with 30 points each are close to qualification too. Only Hyderabad FC (with 28) are in position to upset their plans. Jamshedpur (with 24) are sixth, but out of contention for a playoff slot.

[PKBasu]

Mumbai FC beat ATK Mohun Bagan in the last league match, 2-0, to top the league (by goal difference), although both teams finished with the same points total. The semifinals tomorrow pit Mumbai FC against Goa, and ATK Mohun Bagan against North East United FC.

[usaindia]

some coo
https://www.laprensalatina.com/spanish- ... -playoffs/

[usaindia]

Both Semifinals 1st legs are Draw

[PKBasu]

ATK Mohun Bagan won the second leg 2-1 to make the ISL final.
Mumbai FC and Goa played out a goalless draw, but Mumbai made the final on penalties.

I saw posters all over Kolkata (in English) saying "Remove ATK, protect the legacy" calling on the club's name to be changed back to just "Mohun Bagan". This is the silliest campaign imaginable. If the legacy was so great, how many times did Mohun Bagan win anything outside India or even qualify for the Asian club championship?

[PKBasu]

Mumbai City FC defeat ATK Mohun Bagan 2-1 in the final to win the 2021 ISL title. David Williams scored first for ATK Mohun Bagan, but Mumbai fought back with an on-goal and then a strike by Bipin Singh after a mistake by goalie Arindam who had charged out of his D, but lost control of the ball. Bipin was involved in the first goal as well.

Mumbai FC is owned by CFG (City Financial Group) which also owns Manchester City. So these links to more-professional clubs are helping Indian clubs to dominate the ISL. The link to Atletico Madrid helped ATK in earlier years, but this year the links were loosened a little bit. Clearly, it pays to keep those European links!

[jayakris]

I saw posters all over Kolkata (in English) saying "Remove ATK, protect the legacy" calling on the club's name to be changed back to just "Mohun Bagan". This is the silliest campaign imaginable. If the legacy was so great, how many times did Mohun Bagan win anything outside India or even qualify for the Asian club championship?

Funny, isn't it? Any BS gets some takers in India! And they will be passionate too