Bengaluru FC's ISL journey

As I am a big fan of Bengaluru FC (BFC), this blog post is dedicated to the ups and downs in their 3-year ISL journey. In 2017, BFC exited the I- league and entered ISL and the last 3 years can be considered quite successful, the disappointing 2019-20 season notwithstanding.

A fabulous debut

BFC had signed a bunch of new players – Gurpreet, Paartalu, Dimas Delgado, Edu Garcia, and Miku and there were doubts on how well they would all gel together. However, those doubts were quickly dispelled. While the eventual loss to Chennaiyin FC in the final was heart-breaking and unfortunate, the Blues were outstanding throughout the league games. BFC blazed through the league games winning 13 of the 18 league games and finishing on 40 points, 8 ahead of the second-placed Chennaiyin FC. I was lucky to watch almost all the home games in the stadium with my beloved West Block Blues. The striker duo of captain Sunil Chhetri and Miku was unstoppable scoring 29 goals between themselves. The defense was also solid with BFC conceding the least goals (16) in the league stages and keeping the maximum clean sheets (8). Goalkeeper Gurpreet and defenders John Johnson, Subhashish Bose, Rahul Bheke, and Juanan were all outstanding. After the season they had, BFC definitely deserved to win the ISL in its debut season. However, it seemed just a bad day at the office for the Blues in the final. Subhashish (my favorite BFC player then) was sorely missed in the final against Chennaiyin, having picked up 2 yellow cards in 2 legs of the semi-final play-off against Pune City FC.

The redemption

John Johnson and Subhashish who had been defensive pillars had chosen to move on from the club.  Carles Cuadrat replaced Albert Roca as head coach and it was expected that BFC would carry on from where they had left off. Cuadrat had been the assistant coach under Roca earlier. The 2018-19 league performance however wasn’t quite as remarkable as the earlier season. BFC started well but lost steam towards the second half of the season. The Blues still ended up top of the table on goal difference with a few ISL records – an 11-match unbeaten run, 6 of which were consecutive wins. I was fortunate to have witnessed a part of these at the Fortress Kaanterava. After narrowly missing out on the earlier year, Gurpreet also snapped up the Golden Glove award. The 116th-minute goal by Rahul Bheke is permanently etched in my memory and more than made up for the disappointment in the final earlier year. The victory in the finals remains one of the happiest moments in my life.

A disappointing 2019-20 season

Even a die-hard fan like me must admit that the season gone by was disappointing. While I was obviously unhappy to see BFC lose to eventual champions ATK in the semi-final, it was probably what we deserved. BFC was not able to fill the big gap left by their departing Venezuelan striker, Miku. The Blues managed to score only 24 goals (22 in the 18 league games), with 15 goals through set-pieces. The poor performing frontline - Udanta, Ashique, Brown, and Agusto must take a lion’s share of the blame for the disappointing 2019-20 season. The season was salvaged somewhat by the solid defensive line. BFC conceded just 16 goals in the 20 games in the season. Gurpreet remains the best goalkeeper in the league, a few howlers he made notwithstanding (including in the away game against Mumbai City FC – the one I watched in the stadium). Youngster Suresh Wangjam was the find of the season and expect big things from him in the future. Contract extensions by Juanan and Erik Paartalu mean defensive solidity is also here to stay. However, the over-reliance on captain Chhetri in front of goal needs to end if the Blues hope to go a few notches higher in the upcoming season.