WhenChurchill Brothers started this I-League season, they were hoping towin their third I-League title which had eluded them for more than adecade now. But, nothing went right for the Goan club. The teamchanged foreign players, brought in new players, but that didn’twork. The coach was also changed mid-way in the season.
Fromstart of the season, the team struggled to win matches, winning only3 out of its first 15 games. The ‘Red Machines’ were mostly lyingat the bottom half of the points table. At one point, it looked as ifthey would end up been relegated to the lower division.
But,thanks to its superlative effort during the latter part of the seasonwherein the ‘Red Machines’ won 6 out of their last 9 games,Churchill Brothers managed to finish at seventh position, as comparedsixth place it had finished during last season.
But,overall, it has been a below-par performance even though ChurchillBrothers ended their campaign on a high with 7-0 win over RajasthanFC. The only Goan club at the I-League finished at seventh placeamong 13 teams with 33 points with 9 wins, 9 losses and 6 draws.
Duringmid-way of the season, its Argentinean coach Edgardo Malvestiti wassacked. Also, Churchill’s foreign players this season were left alot to be desired. The club released its three foreign players -Iranian midfielder Meysam Shahmakvandzadeh, Argentinian defender EmiCallegari and forward Ricardo Dichiara. All of them were quicklyreplaced by another bunch of foreigners.
Therewas improvement in Churchill Brothers’ performance after that. But,it was too little too late. The damage was already done after theslow start the team had made during first half of the season whereinit struggled to win matches.
“Oneof the important factors that has affected us that is that we startedour pre-season late. Our foreigners came late, the pre-seasonstarted late too, so this team needed time to show what it’scapable of. I am not giving excuses, but this is a reality,” itsArgentinean coach Edgardo Malvestiti had said at a pre-match mediainteraction. Malvestiti was later removed mid-way in the tournamentdue to poor performance.
Anotherfactor that led to Churchill Brothers’ downfall this season was theinability of its foreign players to score goals as per the team’sexpectations. No doubt, the foreigners only did bulk of the goalscoring. But, they did not score as much goals as the team expectedthem to do so.
It’sa known fact that if you want to have a good campaign, win the title,good foreigner players are needed.
Churchill’sperformance did improve after its young Spanish coach Francesc Bonettook over. Bonet, who had stints at three different clubs in Indiadid a much better job than Malvestiti. After coach Bonet took charge,the team played much better, dominated games, created more chancesbut missed opportunities as well. The team won six matches under him,but could have done better.
ChurchillBrothers have been I-League champions twice – 2008-09 and 2012-13 –and has finished runners-up thrice - 2007–08, 2009–10 and2020–21. But, in recent times, the team has struggled to put agreat show at I-League.
Goingforward, if the club has to win more I-League titles, they will haveto rectify the mistakes it has committed so far and improve upon itsstrategy of hiring quality foreign players and have a good coach atthe helm of its affairs who can deliver the results as per the team’sexpectations.
