I got to see Mumbai City FC beat Atletico de Kolkata 2-1 last night

[Recursion]

It still surprises me that India is not a "football country", as it does most sports commentators. That said, the first season of the Indian Super League just had its last match, in which Mumbai City FC bested Atletico de Kolkata 2-1. (I live in Mumbai and love the city, but my mother-in-law and her family live in Kolkata, so let's just say I'm keeping my affiliation secret at this point.)

Thoughts:

1. The play was, frankly, not as good as I had expected. It felt like a mid-level US collegiate match. People were out of position; chances were squandered; time and tempo were not effectively held by either side (Kolkata actually did better on those counts, but their GK was just not delivering for them, being caught out of position both times).

2. This is the second-largest city in the world, and the final regular season match against their arch-rivals pulled... 23,000 fans. That's not even US levels of apathy; that's much worse. The match was in a cricket stadium and they didn't even bother to open up the third tier. The train system here didn't even have to alter their schedule for a Sunday night game -- hard to imagine that in another country, even the US.

3. The fans who were there were awesome, though I saw more Real Madrid, Brazil, and ManU jerseys than jerseys of either side actually playing in this match.

4. I scored an invite to the ground-level team lounge, and I've never watched football from that far down before (other than when I was playing). It's actually a lot harder to follow from close up, it turns out.

Anyways, I really would like to see India embrace association football, so I'm glad that this league was formed and I think they did pretty well for their first year.

Bombay Shara FC FC FC FC jai ho!

(Oops... did I just state a preference?)

[shenmue]

1. Any step forward

is a good thing.

[T_i_B]

2. Excellent post

Getting any sport to hit the big time takes a lot of time and hard work. Doesn't happen overnight.

23,000 is quite a decent attendance, even if it could be higher. And as far as the cricket thing goes, a lot of English clubs have cricket entwined in their history. And when I watch Rugby Union, it's at a rugby club who share their ground with a cricket club.

Maybe people might take more interest if the Indian national team starts doing well? And a newly formed league should be the best way of getting decent players for that very purpose.