Weekend of shocks as I-League begins
Fernando Torres had just about clinched victory in the Merseyside derby and Phil Brown was plotting the biggest upset of a hugely promising managerial career at the Emirates Stadium when one of India's big two kicked off its I-League campaign on what could best be called a marsh at the Barasat Stadium in Kolkata.
By the time Rob Styles, who dreams up penalties in the way that McCarthyists invented communists, had gifted Manchester United victory against plucky Bolton, those that had bothered to switch to the Zee Sports channel had already seen the upset of the Indian football weekend.
Mohun Bagan, newly crowned champions of the Kolkata Super League, had Bhaichung Bhutia and Jose Ramirez Barreto, a skilful Brazilian, playing up front, and Mumbai FC, in their second year of existence and playing their first game in the top tier, were expected to put up little resistance.
Yet, within 24 minutes, the team whose history makes the 104-year-old Hull City look like AC Milan, had taken a 2-0 lead. Bagan did pull a goal back as the raindrops continued to hurtle down on a quagmire of a pitch, but with Abel Hammond, a Ghanaian, leading the line superbly, Mumbai FC were good value for all three points.
With Stephen Constantine and Bob Houghton having scripted something of a revival in the national team's fortunes this decade, the third Englishman of Indian football has often been overlooked. David Booth's spells as manager of Grimsby Town and Darlington didn't exactly mark him out as a future Brian Clough, but his exploits since arriving in India after itinerant coaching stints in the Far East have earned him much respect. Mumbai FC are his biggest challenge by far, and that start couldn't have been more perfect.
The upset theme played on into Sunday, with Dempo, the defending champions who have won three of the last four titles, beaten 2-1 at home by Jagatjit Cotton and Textile Mills from Phagwara. The Punjab team needs to be lauded for not going down the pack-the-team-with-foreign-imports route, and eight of those who started the game were Sikhs, continuing a proud tradition that dates back to Jarnail Singh, once rated the best defender in Asia, and Inder Singh, whose dribbling skills made JCT big crowd favourites in the early 1970s.
Winners of the inaugural National Football League in 1996-97, JCT are now the standard-bearers for the rest of India, with the I-League having become the stomping ground of sides from Kolkata, Goa and Mumbai. With teams like Kerala Police and their counterparts from the Punjab unable to compete with cash-rich clubs bankrolled either by industry or private individuals, the JCT model has to succeed if India isn't to fall into the cheap-imports trap that has enfeebled many a league across the world.
A Brazilian, Eduardo da Silva Escobar, scored JCT's opening goal, and there's no doubt that some of the foreign signings do improve the standards of those playing around them. But too often, Indian teams have been guilty of playing African footballers in the Carsten Jancker mould. Against better sides from the continent whose defenders are not intimidated by their strength, the tactics once so beloved at the Reebok Stadium are next to useless.
It was almost ironic that the best football on view in the opening weekend of games came from Dempo, who finished with nothing to show for their efforts. With Climax Lawrence, - a headline writer's dream - dictating the play from midfield, Dempo created chance after chance, but Karanjit Singh in the JCT goal was having the sort of day that Jan Tomaszewski enjoyed against England at Wembley in 1973. With the outstanding Anwar Ali also putting his body on the line in Carragher-Terry fashion, Karanjit's agility ensured that he was beaten only once, by Nicolau Borges in the 77th minute.
Bizarrely though, Armando Colaco, Dempo's coach, has already announced that I-League survival rather than success is the aim for his squad this season. Dempo eyes are instead trained on the AFC Cup, a competition for teams from Asia's lesser leagues. An epic 4-3 triumph away to Singapore's Home United the home leg had been drawn 1-1 has convinced Colaco that success is possible in the continent's version of the now-defunct Intertoto Cup. Beirut's Safa SC await in the last four, with the first leg to be played on October 7.
As week two comes around, most Indian football lovers will once again ask themselves where the skill has gone. Once upon a time, players like Mohammad Salim, who played briefly for Glasgow Celtic, and Chuni Goswami, were among the most talented in Asia, possessing both mesmeric dribbling skills and an awareness of those around them. These days, the likes of Lawrence and Bhutia are the exception, with hoof-it exponents to be found in every side.
In many ways, the Indian situation is similar to Scotland, where men like Darren Fletcher and Kenny Miller are poor imitations of titans like Kenny Dalglish and Jim Baxter. Lawrence is an inspirational player who scores goals, not too dissimilar to Barry Ferguson, but it would be a brave man who called either a legend.
• Week one results:
Vasco SC 0-1 Sporting Clube de Goa (a scrap between two teams likely to be fighting relegation)
East Bengal 3-1 Chirag United (a comfortable start for one of the title favourites against another of the newly promoted sides)
Churchill Brothers 2-1 Mahindra United (revenge for the Durand Cup final defeat and a good start for the side that lost the title on goal difference last season)
Mohun Bagan 1-2 Mumbai FC (shock of the weekend. Is Booth India's Phil Brown?)
Dempo 1-2 JCT (Dempo dominated, JCT finished)
Mohammedan Sporting 1-1 Air India (Mohammedans are India's answer to Wolves, a once-great club gone to seed. This could be another season of struggle)
