The Indian Super League returns with the 2024-25 season, and so does ESPN's ISL Musings. We'll cover the facts and numbers of the matches in our matchweek rolling reports, but here we'll try and make sense of the patterns emerging, infer what the larger picture looks like.
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For our first edition this season, we look at our major first impressions from the opening matchweek:
Watch out for Owen Coyle
Owen Coyle's mantra has always been to entertain, and if Chennaiyin's season opener against a stacked Odisha is any indication, we're going to see peak Coyleball this season. With runners coming in from deep, wingers who like to cut in and get in on the action, centre-forwards with points to prove and a midfield that's always looking for the pass forward, a lot of teams will struggle to contain them. They have a goal concession (or three) in them, but Coyle will always give them the belief that they can score more than they let in. What more can you ask for?
They may not be the purists' dream, but they certainly will be the neutrals'.
P.S. Hugo Boumous is showing signs of returning to the unstoppable tour de force that he was a couple of years back, and that should be a warning sign for Odisha's opponents.
Oh, Manolo Marquez
After seeing his national team deliver two lacklustre displays on his debut (the first of which prompted him to say "It's a good game because, from here, it is difficult to play worse than today"), Manolo Marquez saw a meek second half display from his FC Goa side consign them to defeat in their ISL opener. There was a controversial penalty in there, but for once an ISL coach sought to introspect than blame the referee.
Once again, Marquez's quotes did all the analysis for us:
"Only the first twenty minutes was okay, I think they deserve to win. In the second half we didn't play. At least they wanted to win the game."
"All of them [Goa's foreign players] were walking on the pitch. When you walk on the pitch, you cannot win no?"
"We didn't lose because of the referee."
This has all the warning signs of being a long, tough season for the experienced Catalan.
There's an unusual flimsiness to Bagan
Mohun Bagan and flimsy don't usually go together (and for that matter, neither did ATK and flimsy) but the last two matches Jose Molina's side have played exposed a softness in the spine that we don't usually see. In the Durand Cup final, they let a two-goal lead (and comfortable first half dominance) slip at home, and then they repeated the trick in the ISL opener against their main contenders for the two big ISL trophies, Mumbai City.
It's too early to be concerned if you are a Bagan loyalist, but Molina will want to sort out his seriously top-heavy team's balance pronto.
Sunil Chhetri is still Sunil Chhetri
He may not be the goalscoring beast of his prime, but at 40, India's greatest ever footballer still has much to offer his Bengaluru FC side - as he showed in the opener. His intensity and pressing remains as gung-ho as ever but it's the latent threat he carries and the clarity of his on-ball decision making that still shine through. Whether he's used from the start like in the opener, or unleashed as an impact sub, Chhetri will continue to have a major say in this 22nd season of his professional career.
BFC also have someone who's doing that in his first - Vinith Venkatesh is the club's first truly homegrown player, and his emergence is a big deal for the young institution that prides itself on bringing about change. Vinith's goal (the only one of their opener against East Bengal) was very well taken and his overall performance top-notch; here's hoping for more from (and for) him and other youngsters across the league.
No Luna, no party
Forget no party, it was a full-on shutters-pulled-down, windows-barred lockdown. The Kerala Blasters needed a strong start to step out of the shadow of their charismatic departing coach early in the season, but they got the exact opposite against Punjab FC. If they were dire for the first 85 minutes, they were weak and vulnerable in the last ten -- and Mikael Stahre will know that's just not good enough. A returning Adrian Luna will fix quite a lot of issues because of who he is... but will that be enough is the question that will be tugging at Stahre.
P.S. Rahul KP is a wonderfully talented footballer who's never really delivered consistently on the big stage. If he is to do that, it's time to channel his natural aggression more positively than smashing into the opposition's goalscorer out of (what looked like) pure frustration. What looked a bad challenge has been confirmed as a terrible one with news that Punjab's Luka Majcen is now out for 6-8 weeks with a fractured jaw. That's unacceptable on any level and it wouldn't be a surprise if the AIFF's disciplinary committee took a post-facto look at the foul that drew only a yellow on the field. There's absolutely no space in the sport for misplaced aggression of this sort.
The case of the curious selections
The opening matchweek showed some curious selections as managers get used to their squads but none more so than East Bengal. Carles Cuadrat's strengths may be in defensive organization and solidity in the middle, but to have Dimi Diamantakos and Madih Talal on the same side and to bring one on for the other feels like a footballing crime. Talal is a chance creation machine (had joint-most assists in ISL history last season) and Diamantakos a chance-gobbling one (golden boot last season, second best shot conversion rate in ISL history amongst players with atleast 50 shots)... why would you not want those two on the pitch together?
Cuadrat didn't and paid the price when East Bengal became the only away side in these first six matches to lose their game.
The late, late show is on
A 90th minute equaliser, a 95th minute consolation, a 95th minute winner, a 94th minute winner and a 93rd minute winner. That's five out of six games that saw late, late action in the opening matchweek, four of which had a decisive impact on the game... and that's brilliant for the viewer. You may either get 90 minutes of non-stop action (like Odisha-Chennaiyin) or 85 of nothingness (like Blasters-Punjab) but you can't really call it either way until the last whistle is blown. It's exactly the kind of unpredictability that a football league needs.
There are no pushovers*
If anyone thought newly promoted Mohammedan Sporting or completely rejigged Punjab FC - or any other side for that matter - would be pushovers, the opening games have brought them back to earth. Mohammedan gave as good as they got against the impressive NorthEast United (Durand Cup winners, of course) and new-look Punjab seemed to pick up from where the left off last season.
No guaranteed points home or away means teams will remain on their toes, players will have to consistently push themselves and everyone gets the best out of everyone else. Long may that continue.
(*we cannot tell yet re: Hyderabad FC since we have not seen them in action yet)