From glittering start to goals galore, the ISL got it all right

A stadium full of 65,000 fans, an entertaining and glitch free opening ceremony and a match with three brilliant goals and lots of intense physical battles made for a perfect start to the Indian Super League.

While the football was always the focus, it seemed that the sheer glitter of the opening ceremony would overshadow the reason why all the celebrities were there in the first place.

Salt Lake stadium has been going through a lot of refurbishment over the past month and even though the area came to life only on the eve of the first match, it saw an almost full house of 65,000 people who witnessed a fine ceremony and an equally good match.

The purist may say that an opening ceremony like that is just a load of overacting coupled with bringing together an array of stars and former cricketers — but for something new to grab eyeballs in India, it is required. Just like Priyanka Chopra said after her performance — there’s now a ’love story’ between glamour and sport in the country.

Credit needs to be given where it is due. The organisers went all out to make Salt Lake an arena of bamboozling lights and firecrackers that dazzled for 30 minutes before kick-off. To be honest, such an extravaganza was not expected. Even the concepts — one band playing traditional music of the region from where each team came, to Priyanka’s performance and getting all the owners and marquee players together — were at least much more creative than the giant orb and Pit Bull seen at the opening ceremony of the World Cup in Brazil this year.

After watching the first 10 minutes of football, there was a doubt whether the quality of the game could live up to what had just happened on the pitch before the first whistle. But once the teams got into the flow, the football was, if not good, then at least higher than the levels seen during the I-League.

Both teams really got into each other — the 25 fouls and six yellow cards a testimony to that fact — and once the first goal was scored, the game did open up.

Luis Garcia lived up to his billing of marquee player. The Spaniard was part of numerous build-ups towards goal from Atletico de Kolkata and set up the first one with a fine through ball for Ethiopia’s Fikru Teferra to net with a composed lob. The 28-year-old got fans on the edge every time he got the ball, and almost managed to execute a spectacular effort after collecting a long ball and making a half-turn on it, only to miss-kick his attempt.

Garcia’s crossing, flicks, passing and general awareness on the pitch are still international standard. To see him and tough tackling Jan Stohanzl was riveting, and so was the defending of giant Mumbai centre-back Pavel Cmovs — all this punctuated by occasional blasts of music and a bright red firecracker.

But it was Borja Fernandez’ 25-yard screamer that was the icing on the cake. The Spaniard picked up a loose ball and smashed it into the top corner to kill off the game. His fellow countryman Arnal Llibert then scored a tap-in but celebrated in Mario Balotelli-style — all these signs that the football can be enjoyable in the ISL and playing a good entertaining game means a lot to the players too.

The only negative of the night was Mumbai captain Syed Nabi’s injury. Starting on the right wing, he turned his ankle in the turf and will be diagnosed later.

All in all, the ISL’s opening night had everything — a shiny ceremony, a star player left out of the squad ( for reasons explained post-match ), a stretchered-off player, numerous player battles and three fantastic goals. The tournament will have its ups and downs no doubt, but for a start, the ISL couldn’t have asked for better.