| Takeaways from ISL’s league stage Even though Mumbai City FC became the first team to break the 50-goal barrier since the Indian Super League (ISL) became an 11-team competition, goals have been more scarce this season. Unbeaten in their first 18 rounds, an ISL record, which fetched them the league shield, Mumbai lost their last two games but finished the first phase with 54 goals. The overall aggregate though slipped to 334 from 344 last season.  (Source : MUMBAI CITY/TWITTER) By the time Bengaluru FC beat them 2-1 with goals from Sunil Chhetri (the game on February 15 was his first start of the year) and Javi Hernandez, Mumbai had sealed the top spot with three rounds to spare. From Jorge Diaz in front, Lallianzuala Chhangte and Bipin Singh on the flanks, Greg Stewart and Ahmed Jahou in the middle to Mourtada Fall and Mehtab Singh at the back and Vikram Pratap Singh coming off the bench, Des Buckingham’s team has showed strength in depth and self-belief (you could argue they are related). Against Jamshedpur and twice against Chennaiyin FC, they won games they were trailing. Up 2-0, Chennaiyin FC lost 2-6 to Mumbai. ATK Mohun Bagan threw everything they had but the blue shirts protected the 1-0 lead Chhangte had given them at Salt Lake stadium. Chhangte had scored against ATK Mohun Bagan at home as well. He had a standout season being the first Indian since Sunil Chhetri in 2017-18 to get 10 goals (Chhetri got 14 then and Chhangte has at least two more games to equal that). Chhangte also had six assists. Chhangte is the most effective Indian player in ISL, Igor Stimac said in January. Little has changed between then and now for the India head coach to amend that. Since scoring seven goals in seven games in the season-opening Durand Cup, Chhangte has not looked back. As wide right, he could always get behind the defence. This season, Chhangte showed he could also play centre (that is how he got the equaliser at Jamshedpur) and has sharpened his finishing skills. “From the start of my journey, I knew that I was not the most talented but I also knew what I had to do: get up before others, do more gym than others,” said Chhangte in an interview. Mumbai will need that as they square off against the winners of the Bengaluru FC-Kerala Blasters game. Bengaluru’s bull run Not as imperious as Mumbai’s, Bengaluru FC too had a good run, one that kept them afloat. Having ended 2022 with a 1-2 defeat to East Bengal, they have won all eight games this year. It took coach Simon Grayson the first half of 2022-23 to get his team right and when he did, it meant Chhetri wouldn’t start but Sivasakthi Narayanan would. Along with Rohit Kumar, Prabir Das, a clutch of India regulars – there were often eight Indians on the pitch – Roy Krishna and Hernandez, Sivasakthi made Bengaluru an unstoppable force.  Bengaluru FC's Sivasakthi Narayanan has been the find of this ISL season. (Image credit: BengaluruFC@Twitter) Sivasakthi is 21 and in his first season with the senior team. The player from Tamil Nadu was spotted by former international Raman Vijayan. Last term, he was with Bengaluru’s B team and scoring for fun in the local league. “I want to play for the first team, yes. But I want to play for the first team in my position, leading the line rather than being moved elsewhere. The ISL has a history of clubs preferring foreign strikers to be the focal point and that’s something I hope to change..,” Sivasakthi told the club’s website last year. Performance in ISL is no reflection of how a player will do for India because the level of international football is usually several notches higher. Sivasakthi may also need to bulk up but what he doesn’t lack is confidence. Six goals and two assists in 898 minutes in his first season is proof that he can also let his studs do the talking. The play-off for semi-finals has been introduced this year but three of the four in the fray have gone further in ISL’s short history. Odisha FC have not. Only once, in 2019-20, did they finish sixth before this. Odisha needed a point in their last game but fluffed their lines only for FC Goa to do that too against Bengaluru. So, Odisha, for whom young wide forward Isak Vanlalruatfela and central midfielder Thoiba Singh have had good seasons, survived. Diego Mauricio can now put distance between him and the rest in the race for the Golden Boot when he travels to ATK Mohun Bagan in a winners-take-all game. Purple patch for green and maroon?  ATK Mohun Bagan goalscorers against East Bengal in ISL's Kolkata derby, Slavko Damjanovic (left) and Dimitri Petratos. (Image source: Samir Jana/HT) They have the most India players, are possibly the most expensive ISL team, have retained the core and the coach (like three of the six remaining). Yet, forget fighting Mumbai for the top spot, ATK Mohun Bagan could not even directly qualify for the semi-finals. Goals have been a problem, from 37 last term (here’s looking at you Krishna and David Williams) they managed 24 in 2022-23. Four came in the last two games which ensured that they stayed alive and stayed at home for the play-off. So, is it all coming together for green and maroons? Barring Liston Colaco, who may have lost his place in the starting line-up, things seem to be looking up for Juan Ferrando’s men. They are compact in inner defence where Pritam Kotal has rolled back the years and formed good partnerships with either Brendan Hamill or Slavko Damjanovic. Ashique Kuruniyan could be the replacement Stimac has in mind for Udanta Singh, who is not an automatic starter at Bengaluru anymore, and Ashish Rai, Manvir Singh and Dimitri Petratos have put in industrious shifts. If Petratos, Carl McHugh and Hugo Boumous are available and Freddie Gallego can come on from the bench, it will take a lot for Odisha FC to do what they haven’t done this season – beat ATK Mohun Bagan. The winners will play defending champions Hyderabad FC in the semi-finals. Hyderabad FC lost Rai but, like ATK Mohun Bagan, Bengaluru and Mumbai, have the nucleus intact foreign players included. This is coach Manolo Marquez’s third season and he has shown he can improve players. Hyderabad FC are not easy to break down and they have players who can be clinical in front of goal. Over to you, Bartholomew Ogbeche. East Bengal’s season of discontent With six teams surviving the league, with a coach who knew India and with preparations, though far from ideal, better than before, I thought East Bengal would do better. And on this path, I wasn’t walking alone. True, East Bengal didn’t have the depth to win home and away against Mumbai, Hyderabad or ATK Mohun Bagan – they didn’t – but to get nothing from FC Goa, Odisha and Chennaiyin FC was proof that either the coaching or the personnel, or both, were not right. Stephen Constantine was right about the difference in budget with ATK Mohun Bagan but that doesn’t explain zero points against teams with budgets that were similar. That makes Cleiton Silva, who has been given a new deal by East Bengal, sharing the top spot with Mauricio with 12 goals a remarkable feat. Silva, Noarem Mahesh Singh, Lalchungnunga, Mobashir Rahman and VP Suhair did well but lacked support. That was also true for Ritwick Das, the wide forward being among the few good things for Jamshedpur this term, Chennaiyin FC left-back Akash Sangwan and forward Abdelnasser El Khayati and Goa’s Iker Guarrotxena who can play attacking midfielder and be the focal point in attack. With players from teams that make the semi-finals unavailable when he starts a preparatory camp in Kolkata on March 14, Stimac could call some of these new faces ahead of India’s games against Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar this month. It will be the first step in finalizing his probables for the Asian Cup which is likely to start next January. | 
