The loss brought back memories of that night in 2015, when the team after being up 2 goals to 1, lost the final in the dying minutes by 2 goals to 3. The fracas that followed is well forgettable, but eminently forgettable and this final was supposed to put to rest the ghost of that final.
FC Goa played some great football throughout the league. There was skill on display, there was athleticism. The football, as in most past seasons, was excellent and entertaining. The roar from the stands at the home games every time the men in the orange and white jerseys forayed into the opponents’ half, is testimony to this. They lost a few games, but this was a long league, and a few defeats are par for the course. They lost again when it mattered most, but even in defeat the performance has given some hope for a resurgence of football in the State.
Did the team manage to raise the standard of football in Goa, is a question that will be answered when more young Goan footballers catch the eye of the national coach, or get picked up by ISL teams across the country. Playing abroad for a reputed team is a dream of many a Goan footballer, but achieving that can only come after being noticed in the local league. Perhaps the ISL can be the vehicle to prove that talent exists and get picked up by foreign teams.
The league has put Goa back on the football map, at least we hope it has. Goa has a long football history and of late had been struggling to regain its form in the country. Oh yes, there is the argument that the team is not all homegrown. There were players from outside the State and outside the country and a coach who comes from Spain, but the team’s performance has definitely brought back some of the lost footballing pride that Goa once boasted of. It has brought hope that football is not dying in Goa, that the tide is not running out for the game in this coastal State where most of the young lads are eyeing jobs abroad, with little time to spend on the football field.
Goa loves its football. Goans have played it in the paddy fields after the harvest, and now on the modern and manicured football grounds. Since the ISL turned up on to the scene, Goans have taken to FC Goa, supporting the team, like they have supported no other. Buses carrying fans left Goa on the eve of the match, making their way to Mumbai to cheer the team to victory. The result might have dampened their spirits, but not their love for the game, as they will return to cheer the team in the next season. Yes, most of all, FC Goa over the past seasons has united the Goan football fans. They all cheered in unison, shouting uzzo and waving the flag as the eleven orange shirts chased after the ball on the field. There was no uzzo at the end, but the sparks that have been lit should work to take football in Goa forward.
So, what do we say to a team that has after long given Goa something to cheer about even if it lost in the final? Well done FC Goa of course, and to Sergio Lobera who has coached the team for two seasons, muchas gracias. And getting a little ambitious, we hope that in the next season FC Goa does not disappoint again. The State that has been thirsting for some good news, and if it comes in the State sport then it will be even sweeter.
