It was wild and chaotic and unpredictable till the very end. A season that almost never took off and started only on Valentines Day this year ended on an anarchic Thursday night that had four teams in contention and had plausible scenarios where any of three teams could have won it until the final whistle blew at the Kishore Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata.
For once that went, a stream of red and gold invaded the pitch as their beloved East Bengal sealed their first ever ISL title, their first national league title in 22 years.
They had done it the hard way -- of course, they had. They trailed Inter Kashi for most of the first half, saw Mohun Bagan take the lead atop the table by doing nothing at all, while chief gunslinger Youssef Ezzejari missed from a couple of yards out as they wasted attack after attack for 45minutes. They then had Ezzejari making amends early in the second half with a nutmeg of the keeper and a calm finish as they retook the lead atop the table. And finally, they lost their collective heads as Mohammed Rashid slid into guide home a sensational Bipin Singh cross.
That goal went in with twenty minutes to go, but with Kashi pushing for an equaliser, fights breaking out everywhere across the league, Bagan and Mumbai City looking likely to win their matches (which they did, eventually)... it wasn't over till the final whistle blew.
And once it did, pandemonium. The players raced off the pitch as the fans took over, years of pain and suffering and near misses and absolute shambolic campaigns forgotten the moment that whistle seared through the heavy Kolkata air.
While East Bengal were huffing and puffing their way to history, the action in the league was off the charts -- the greatest finish in the short history of this league, in the first season where they went with a proper league format.
Mohun Bagan had enough chances to gulf the five goal 'Goal Difference' that eventually separated them from their great rivals, and they were some chances... the Bagan players seemed to be having a 'who can make the more egregious miss' contest running (Jason Cummings won that, by the by) and the Bagan faithful gathered at the Salt Lake could barely believe what they were seeing. Two goals from 32 shots and 17 corners don't even begin to describe how poor their finishing was.
Over in Delhi, Punjab FC went down to nine men, Mumbai City scored two and if East Bengal had slipped up, Mumbai would have won another title, this time at the end of a tumultuous season that saw the exit of City Football Group from their ownership structure before a ball was kicked. In Jamshedpur, Mohamed Sanan missed a tap-in from a yard and the Stephen Eze centre forward experiment failed spectacularly as they went in search of a miracle that they didn't come close to.
In the end, though, what counts is this: East Bengal's goal difference is five more than Mohun Bagan's. In a season where they have been the most free-scoring side and it's most entertaining, it's that philosophy of Oscar Bruzon's that mattered most. After that epic 1-1 draw in the most important boro match of recent times, one in which Edmund Laldrinka plunged an East-Bengal-shirt-clad corner flag into the Salt Lake turf, they just had to win and keep that goal difference higher... and they did that, somehow.
From the nearly-there campaigns of the late National Football League and I-league era to the circus it had devolved into in their ISL form (anyone remember Robbie Fowler's stint?), Bruzon has dragged East Bengal back to the very top. Astute signings have helped (Ezzejari, Miguel Figueira, Bipin), as has faith in Indian youngsters (step forward, Edmund and PV Vishnu) but what's taken them over the line is Bruzon's endearing commitment to attack come what may. There are many questions hanging in the air -- the future of the ISL, the future of investment in East Bengal, the future of Oscar Bruzon (who has said he's leaving because of a lack of clarity in what's to come) -- but all that fades into the background for now as the skies over Kolkata go red and yellow with the firecrackers and flares that the faithful burn.
The shirts the players wore to the trophy lift told a tale and then some. On their backs, "champions." On the front, "Chillam Achhi Thakbo"... "we were here, we are here, we will remain here."
East Bengal, champions of India, again. The mashal (torch/flame) has rarely burnt brighter.