Into the Blue

Behind the history-making exploits of Bengaluru FC is a tight-knit unit and great professionalism

Raucous cries rang out around the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru. The stadium was only half full - which was such a pity - but those who had made their way to the ground fervidly egged on the home side. The football on show was sometimes genuinely thrilling, other times erratic, but not once did it slump to the depths of unbearable vapidity.

This was one of those rare occasions that comes about only once every few years for Indian football - one where you unabashedly feel proud of a domestic team playing a sport that always promises so much but errs routinely when it comes to delivering the goods.

By the time this hugely eventful affair reached its conclusion last week, Bengaluru FC had made history, becoming the first Indian club to reach the final of the AFC Cup. Somewhat fittingly, their victims in the semi-final were the defending champions, Malaysia's Johor Darul Ta'zim FC.

Recalling other such glorious passages in Indian football can be a tedious exercise - achievements of this magnitude, after all, are difficult to find. East Bengal's win against Thailand's BEC Tero Sasana in the final of the 2003 Asean Club Championships perhaps comes the closest. Not mentioning East Bengal's 1973 win over North Korea's Dok Ro Gang - which comprised a number of players that had represented the national team during the 1966 World Cup - in the same breadth would be a grave injustice. The parallels, however, end just about there. Bengaluru FC, for all the competitiveness and physical grind of modern-day Asian football, stand atop the pedestal of India's greatest club wins, and only they can knock themselves off that perch - by climbing even higher.

For Parth Jindal, the 26-year-old owner and CEO of the club, this is the stuff of dreams. "It is quite unbelievable. To think of where we've reached, it is phenomenal. Honestly, we weren't expecting it," he says on the phone from Mumbai. It is easy to forget that Jindal's team is only three years old. Since its inception, it has already won two I-League titles as well as lifted the Federation Cup on one occasion. With the AFC Cup final scheduled to take place next week, against Kuwaiti side Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya, more history beckons.

The recipe for Bengaluru FC's rapid ascent to the top of Indian football is simple, yet enormously difficult for some of the other "legacy" Indian clubs to replicate. In the last three years, Bengaluru FC have bought smartly - a well thought-out strategy that places special focus on finding the right player for the right position. In Ashley Westwood, they got their hands on an astute tactician and terrific man manager, who inspired his players in ways unseen in Indian football. And, they have an academy that churns out a few quality youngsters every once in a while.

"Extremely professional," is how football expert and commentator Novy Kapadia describes Bengaluru FC. "There is little interference and the players and managers know what their job is. It is a great example of how a club should be run," he says.

Earlier this year, the situation wasn't so rosy. Soon after guiding the team to the quarter-finals of the AFC Cup, Westwood and Bengaluru FC decided to part company- many felt that a marriage that still had so much to offer had met a premature end. Several players, who, along with Westwood, had helped take a bunch of unheralded rookies and transform the club into a domestic powerhouse, were distraught. Jindal's phone rang incessantly over the next few days, with several players expressing their displeasure over Westwood's departure. Soon, Jindal realised that he somehow had to keep the team together.

"It was one of the most difficult decisions I've ever made. In fact, I couldn't sleep for a couple of nights. But it was all for the good of the club," says Jindal, on Bengaluru's decision to let Westwood go.

His replacement, Spaniard Albert Roca, a former assistant to Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona, introduced Bengaluru FC to a more expansive style of football, signalling the end of the route-one tactics Westwood liked employing. "Ever since Roca has come in, the team is playing more in the Spanish mould. A lot of emphasis is now on passing and keeping the ball," feels Kapadia.

Roca's Iberian stamp on the Blues reflected delightfully in the second-leg against Johor. The Malaysians allowed the hosts too much space in the middle of the park, with Cameron Watson, playing in the deep midfielder role, and Eugenson Lyngdoh easily able to dictate play. Moreover, C K Vineeth drifting into midfield created a complete imbalance for Johor.

Experts also point how Roca's decision to play Sunil Chhetri more through the middle has benefited the team. The Indian skipper scored two against Johor at home: the first a smartly taken header from a Lyngdoh corner and the second a thunderous long-ranger that pretty much sealed the game. Also, the hard yards put in by assistant coach Carles Cuadrat on set-pieces at the training ground seem to be yielding the right results.

For now, Jindal has his eyes set on just one goal: the AFC Cup trophy on November 5. "A victory will be the biggest thing for Indian football," he says. But among his long-term plans is the dream of winning the I-League with 11 Indian players on the pitch. "I always told Ashley (Westwood) this. That would be some achievement. We must trust Indian players more." Well, it's fair to say that he's off to the right start.