The Bangalore Super Division League 2010-2011

The Bangalore football fraternity came together in huge numbers to the stadium for the much anticipated Super Division League 2011.

The participating teams:

HAL
BEML
MEG

KSP
ASC
CIL
POSTAL
SAI
BEL
RWF

DHARMARAJA UNION
ISRO

MEG were the run-away champions of this year’s Bangalore Super Division league. They won the league with a game to spare. They convincingly defeated all their nearest competitors. The top of the table did not provide surprises or excitement throughout the league. There was only one winner right from the word GO. ASC came a distant second. It was a dead rubber at the top.

The relegation battle was a keen contest. ISRO, SAI and DHARMARAJA UNION were favourites to go down and they finished in the bottom 3. The 4^th relegation spot was a thing to avoid for RWF, CIL and BEL. CIL were on a winless streak for 4 games, the bright side is that they did not lose a game either up to their 9^th game. RWF and BEL struggled at the beginning. They lost few games but came back strong when the threat of relegation became more ominous. They both notched up wins against top side BEML. CIL drew with BEML as well making it a climax to the end. Interestingly, CIL, BEL and RWF were all involved in 2 draws and a win, and the loser goes down. And so it unfolded. CIL drew their games with both RWF and BEL. RWF vs BEL was closely watched by CIL as well, a winner in this contest would put them out of danger. I would have liked to see a draw here and make it a real contest with all three teams having to win their last game to survive. RWF and BEL had to play already relegated ISRO and SAI which would have left CIL with a must win game with HAL. CIL are always known to make big teams run for their money and would’ve been great to watch. It didn’t quite happen though. BEL came out on top against RWF and concluded the relegation of RWF. The consequence of the CIL HAL game had no significance.

All the teams involved in the relegation struggle were teams with contrasting problems internally. RWF were the team that had invested significantly, inducted few players as employees in order to build a professional team. BEL were the team that bought players by paying them well enough to get a good side to survive in the league. They had very few practice sessions throughout the year. CIL were the team with none. They have always been building teams over the years with passion and a sense of friendship amongst the players, a strong bond that held them together this year.

The league was sure a breath of fresh air after a 2 year gap. I would still say it was “dull”.  We did not get to see a whole lot of quality that would mark an improvement in things. The only positive was the brand new turf. It is contradictory and contrasting considering the talent on display. It is something like the standards produced in the I league simply do not match the Indian National team’s performance. It is as though there is a lack of motivation for the “clubs” to do well. The players though, are fighting it out and displaying a lot of skill, character and courage. The players are simply not given enough incentive to do well for the club rather than do well for themselves. There is a long way to go in this direction.

Let us see what the individual teams did all season:

HAL kicked off their campaign on the back of a “successful” I league campaign. They managed to avoid relegation on 1^st June 2011. They were expected to carry forward a lot of momentum from the comprehensive win against DEMPO. The minnows SAI were their first opponent. They had a convincing 4-1 win. They carried a streak of wins until ASC handed them a thumping 1-4 defeat. More disappointment was to follow as they lost again to arch rivals BEML by a comfortable margin of 1-3. The defense looked vulnerable with key players missing from the squad. Most notable was Rohit Chand Thakuri who has his sights set on Arsenal or Tottenham. Kudos to the young lad! The huge concern was the goal keeper. Their weakest link throughout the I league has been the goal keeper. With new recruitments taking shape with players from all over the country flocking for the trials, we can expect a better show in that department, come the next season. For a large part of the league this year, HAL played with a depleted squad. Most of the players seeking new clubs, there was very little of talent on display except for Kshetrimayum with his fiery pace and ever so cool RC Prakash. HAL finish a disappointing 4^th this year, although they wouldn’t be very concerned with that as the team building for the next I league campaign takes shape.

The supporters got to see the likes of Satish, Rajendra Prasad and Sunil Kumar after they spent most of their time in I league on the bench. HAL have revamped their squad. We all expect them to repeat last year’s relegation struggle all over again.

BEML have been equally disappointing this season with losses against relegation contenders BEL and RWF, and another couple of draws with CIL and Postal. The losses against ASC and MEG added to the woes.

 It almost seems like all the players there are just using it as a platform to showcase their skill to attract bigger clubs. They just do not seem to be playing like a unit. One such is Kartigeyan who has been quite exceptional in the centre of midfield. 

Sharath and Nirmal have been big positives for them. These young men have matured a lot and finally showing glimpses of taking the I league Division-2 campaign, head on. Winger Avinash has been in his elements with his trademark crosses from the left.

Mahesh Babu from the other flank has been equally good. Ramesh looks to have come of age and is quite a formidable force in the centre of the defense. Vinod alongside him has looked good as well. Together, though, they have been leaking goals amongst themselves. The individual play of the Earth Movers has been as good as anyone in the I leauge, but the team has not gelled well enough to be called a strong unit. It has been a story of missed chances all season long.

 Khalander in front of goal has been disappointing with a blown penalty to his name against CIL. One can almost sense that there is a long way to go before they make it to the I league.

MEG have been amazingly good all season long. They were yet to concede a goal in the entire league up to the 9^th game. That is a stunning 720 minutes without conceding. The first goal they conceded came against Postal when a combination of Amous and Einstein finally broke this amazing record. They have been a huge powerhouse piling up 33 goals. Hmar has been the one player they look up to make those devastating runs. His play has been very direct. “Catch me if you can” has been his style of play this season. Ajiraj and Ramu have been highly supportive with assists. Lokeshwar Singh and Hmar have been tearing apart defenses all season like they have been doing in recent years.

 Suman has been a huge improvement. From what he was at RBANMS in his college days, to becoming a referee, to being as fit as he is today, its quite something in itself. He captained the side with a lot of spirit and commanded respected from many seniors in the side. Not too often has it been the case in MEG where a young man captains the side filled with experienced heads. 

We all want to see MEG in the I League. They would definitely prove tough for most top teams. They won the league with a game in hand. They were the only unbeaten team in the league with 9 wins and 2 draws.

KSP

Apart from the professional teams in HAL, BEML, MEG and ASC, KSP were the only other team that had regular practice sessions throughout the year.  Their season went on as smoothly as expected after their impressive 2^nd place finish in the previous season. They comfortably won against the lesser teams and lost against MEG and ASC, drew with HAL and BEML. This was pretty much expected from them right from the start of the season.  It was a sad sight to see Inayathulla Basha, their charismatic captain sit out for most of the games.

 Pradeep BV took on the captain’s role with as much passion and character. He continued to remain the one man wall in the defense. There was a game or two where he was played up front, but to no good effect. He would still call this league a successful campaign. Kenneth spent two years in the dark to recuperate from his ACL injury. He looked fierce playing just behind the strikers and it never even seemed like he went through a knee surgery. Even though many of their players, most importantly Stephen and Mahesh Babu both left for BEML, the void was very well filled up by the core team, with Girish stepping up to the task. Sameer Ahmed continued to impress down the flank. KSP’s season went on with no real surprises or upsets. 

If we were to write down number 4 at the start of the season, one would have chosen KSP to finish 4^th. The KSP team, as always has been, is one of the best recruiters of players. They identify the right people for their recruitment process and get the best out of them in terms of football for the season. The fans have always been a big fan of their management. This is one team that can pull the bunny out of the hat when they really feel like. We’d like to see a little more ambition from them going forward.

ASC were the surprise package of the league this year all down to the impeccable Jotin Singh. 

He was on target for most games and created a sense of inevitable threat to all the defenses. In spite of losing to Postal at the start of the league, and drawing with BEL, they bounced back well. Their turnaround for the season came when they beat HAL 4-1. They carried the momentum forward until they set up the top of the table clash with MEG, the huge army boys crowd made it a carnival atmosphere only to see them lose by a solitary goal against their arch rivals MEG. It did bring a breath of fresh air to the stadium every time ASC played. Thiru was great in the midfield as usual. His combination with Jotin Singh was a trademark of most of ASC’s goals this season.

CIL were written down relegation contenders to start with. They were playing the dangerous game until the last of the game of their season. Their campaign began against BEL who were all over them. The youngsters from BEL rallied on and on against the aging legs of Enian and indisciplined-looking midfield packed with tummies. 

The midfield was non- existent throughout the league. Resilience of Gopal Krishna and the wall behind the defense, goal keeper Venkatesh, saved them game after game with goal line clearances and despairing dives to keep the ball off the line. The footballing Gods were with CIL all through the season. They had Khalander of BEML miss a penalty against them while the rain came to the rescue against MEG when they were staring at an embarrassing defeat after they were down 3-0 in the first half. The game was abandoned due to poor playing conditions. They salvaged a point from the replayed game. Substitute to start with, Madhu showed some good football to the crowd against MEG and RWF, so too did Sharath with the few minutes they played. 

It was Madhu who stood up when he arrived as a substitute against SAI to score 2 goals and hand CIL their first win of the season. CIL got 6 draws 2 wins and 3 defeats to stay just ahead of the relegation zone. The highlight of the season were their draws against BEML and MEG. Clearly it was down to poor management for CIL that saw them struggling throughout the league. Their management decisions did not make any sense to on-lookers.

 They signed Omar Ahmed mid-way through the season who spent most of the time lying on the turf than on his feet. There were many instances where the crowd was mocking at him. Yet CIL stuck with him for all the games. The writing is on the wall. CIL are favourites to get relegated in the next season.

Postal Department

Talk about Postal talk about Amous. He was the man of the moment. He proved to be the suddenly emerged star of the season. He had incredible pace backed by some very sensible passing that won him a lot of fans this year. He is one player who would be eyeing the bigger clubs come next season. Postal’s entire season almost was a reflection of the performance of Amous. 

The other players played around him and were not any less impressive. Arun Pandian, controversially played for them this year after spending a good time this year in Mumbai. He has grown in stature and it showed on the pitch. He was another one of their key players for this season.

 Einstein, the big figure up front held the ball up for veteran Venkatesh to slot home goals. This was their Mantra at the start of the league with an impressive win over ASC. It was a good investment in recruitment of key players like Chetan and Aravind this year. Prakash along with Shiva and Amous have set their sights on HAL and BEML on the back of a good season’s performance. 

The coaching staff would be proud of producing players of this quality. It was disappointing to see Freddy sit out on the bench. It is always a sad sight to see when someone with quality has gone out of favor with the team after playing so well in their glory days. 

He still showed glimpses of class whenever he was on the pitch. As sad as this, much like Freddy, was the sight of Chetan Kumar playing for a team like Postal after representing the national team, playing for I league team HAL and being reduced to play for Postal. Is this is a good sign for Postal or a bad sign for talented players joining clubs which lack ambition? I would say it is best we can get for the game from what we have.

BEL’s season was typical of their practice or rather lack of practice sessions. They paid a decent sum of money to some really talented players who practiced on their own at the various footballing centres in Bangalore. 

Their season was a story of upsets and more upsets. They would go down to relegation favourites Dharamaraja Union but would beat title contenders BEML and draw with ASC. Aravind, their long serving player, was consistent with his cool head on the pitch. He marshalled the team to safety. Mohan, the TFA return, coordinated well in the centre of midfield. His long range efforts were a threat to most goalkeepers. 

Shiva Kumar stabilized the defense while Harry as they call him, with his shining pair of boots dazzled everyone on the pitch. The youngsters put up a good show with attractive football, but inconsistent as expected.

SAI were another one of those relegation favourites. They played very good football but the results never showed so. The coordination in the centre of midfield just did not match the finishing. Sridhar, upfront showed glimpses of good skill but the finishing was never there. They did manage to pull one over their fellow relegation contenders ISRO and Dharmaraj Union. But that was about it for SAI’s season. The old days of SAI with the coaching of passionate Aslam Khan are one for the memories it seems. The lackluster academy still recruits over aged players, keeps them for a good 3-4 years, and then they have no place to go with their education discontinued. This is a serious issue ailing SAI from quite a time. We see on the contrary, the competing academy DYSS producing Indian internationals every year and showing a way of life in football for many youngsters while we have the other bigger academy with fundamentals wrongly implemented. The hope against hope continues to see another Xavier from SAI.

RWF were the team that recruited few players in Sugandhar, Prakash and Sunil to make a professional outfit a couple of years ago. They breezed through the “A” division, stood up as a team to be counted in the Super division the following year. A couple of years pass by with no competitive football, and the indiscipline sets in. The team struggled heavily due to this and was eventually relegated in the league this year. These instances just give more food for thought for PSUs to stop recruiting players. It has been the story for quite a few years with players dropping the game once they have a job. Gone are days when players used to play their heart out for a good 10 years for the club that offered them the job. RWF suffered at the hands of every other team above them in the league standings except for the surprise win over BEML. Lokesh was the promising youngster that caught the attention of many down the left flank. He is sure to have his sights on bigger clubs come the next year. Looking at the teams in the A division, RWF as it seems would again cruise through the A division next year. Where is the team going though? Question remains unanswered.

Dharmaraja Union was another team with all the impressive football but no results. Coach Saravana was the trademark of Dharmaraja Union. It was known to be Saravana’s team. They had signed all youngsters, mostly drop outs from bigger clubs and few college students. 

Anup was the stand out performer for them at left back. He displayed good skill and pace all part of a good year of college football with the league giving an extra boost to the youngster. Ramesh Naina, dropped from BEML, played some very good football playing in the centre of midfield in one game and playing at centre back in another. 

Sanju , dropped from another big club, showed all the skill in the forward line with not many goals to show for. Their draw against HAL was all down to the brilliant Harish in goal. He won the crown over that evening with charges and dives and punches off the line over the 90 minutes.

ISRO, the team put together by Khaja, was promoted to the Super division two years ago. Their first outing in the Super Division proved to be tougher than expected. They were sent tumbling down to the A division with no wins and a draw in a dead rubber against RWF.

 Suman, in the centre of midfield was the lone fighter for the team, but that was just not sufficient for them to survive the season. Mano supported him with his big figure and the story was the same. Suman, on to Mano, solo run from Mano and blocked off by the defender. 

Their effort to make it to the Super Division in the first place something that deserves credit. The downsizing of the Super Division league leaves the A Division league with lot of competition for the top and bottom places. 

The league table looked like this with not many surprises with a depleted HAL squad. 

		Home							Away							Overall
	2011	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	P	W	D	L	F	A	Goal Diff	Pts
1	MEG	9	8	1	0	29	2	25	2	1	1	0	4	2	4	11	9	2	0	33	4	29	29
2	ASC	5	4	0	1	18	1	12	6	4	1	1	12	4	13	11	8	1	2	30	5	25	25
3	HAL	11	6	3	2	34	14	21	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	11	6	3	2	34	14	20	21
4	KSP	10	5	3	2	17	10	18	1	0	1	0	1	1	1	11	5	4	2	17	10	7	19
5	Postal department	3	3	0	0	8	0	9	8	2	3	3	8	13	9	11	5	3	3	16	13	3	18
6	BEML	7	3	1	3	15	10	10	4	1	2	1	4	3	5	11	4	3	4	19	13	6	15
7	BEL	6	3	2	1	7	5	7	5	1	1	3	2	14	4	11	4	3	4	9	19	-10	15
8	CIL	8	2	6	2	7	8	12	2	0	1	1	0	3	0	11	2	6	3	7	12	-5	12
9	RWF	4	1	2	1	6	6	5	7	1	2	4	8	17	5	11	2	4	5	13	24	-11	10
10	SAI	2	2	0	0	5	1	6	9	0	2	7	5	22	2	11	2	2	7	11	23	-12	8
11	DHARMARAJA UNION	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	11	2	2	7	8	27	8	11	2	2	7	8	27	-19	8
12	ISRO	1	0	0	1	3	4	0	10	0	1	9	6	38	1	11	0	1	10	9	42	-33	1