Team Herald
MARGAO: 3-0 at full time in the second leg against Delhi Dynamos. Story over. Debate over. But the dream continues. A dream team carrying the unified hope of our land of Goa – a bunch of Gaur’s unleashed on October 4, when they played their first game at Fatorda, will culminate this dream journey on December 20, playing for the title of ISL champions. And that is a reality.
With the moon on the rise towards a full moon night on Christmas, FC Goa will look to aim for the stars five days before, to effectively settle where the champions of India are, or come from. For close to a decade Goan clubs have won almost every I-league – the national league. In the inaugural year of the ISL, under the tutelage of the master ring master Zico – who knows a thing or two about playing and making champions – Goa came painstakingly close and paid the penalty or not scoring in full time, in either of the two legs in the semi-final losing to the old nemesis Atletico de Kolkata.
The old nemesis’ are unlikely to be on a plane to Goa having lost 3-0 in the first leg of their semi-finals, but who knows. And if there is one team or one land that knows and respects resurrection, it is Goa. But if Kolkata’s journey ends today, Goa’s new nemesis Chennai will be here.
But we will leave that for December 20. Today, bask in the glory of what this dream has done to us. The unifier it has been and the ultimate source of joy to a Goa which hasn’t had too much to talk about in the recent past.
So how was this ISL different from the last? Last year, a heavily-billed team with expectations riding high, went slip sliding away and it needed a miraculous winning turnaround to make it to the semi-finals. This year, from the very beginning, this team gave us hope of going all the way out, barring one phase when it seemed that the campaign was going off track. The Gaurs had three eventful phases. Oct 4 to 22: The blaze of glory phase when they won, drew, lost and then won two more. Then from Oct 25 to November 8: This was the disturbing phase when all seemed to slip away. They lost, drew, lost again and then drew and then the final eventful phase between November 17 and December 15, when they put it altogether winning 3, losing 2 and drawing one. Importantly they won when it mattered.
As ringmaster Zico said, “The desire to win made the difference today. The team understood it was a do-or-die situation today.”
Joffre, who scored the first goal said, “I don’t mind whom we play in the final. Today is a day for us to celebrate and we are going to do just that. We’re looking forward to the next step but for today, we’ll celebrate.”
In the end, we really want to win this ISL. Make no mistake. But we have already won. And while success will have many friends, perhaps the only ones – apart from our daredevil Gaurs on the field and their support staff, are the fans of FC Goa, who played with their hearts, making our Fatorda home ground a fortress, not made of concrete but of sheer will and intensity. With every roar, every wave of the flag, our hearts beat as one as we secured our fortress.
AND the journey continues. And borrowing from the Iron Maiden song called ‘Journeyman’, and taking liberty with the lyrics, because today is our day, we say
From the red sky of the east
To the sunset in the west
We have cheated defeat
But if that was just a dream
This is what it means.
We are there in the finals. We are there. We are there.
