Kerala Blasters will have to wait 17 days for the ISL to resume after the last break of the season. The ISL10, which has been canceled several times due to national team commitments, came to a halt on Wednesday with Mumbai City FC leading the rankings on the strength of a positive goal difference against, Mohun Bagan Super Giant with a game in hand. Mohun Bagan and Mumbai seem to be deep in the battle for the shield as the league phase hits the homestretch although Odisha FC and FC Goa also have a chance Mohun Bagan ended up on top of Mumbai, who scored Vikram Pratap Singh’s hat- . trick ( sixth Indian and second in ISL history). junior) rode into the break and beat Northeast United 4-1, and in that game the ₹6 crore could reveal the winner of the trophy and a berth in the 2024-25 Asian Champions League 2. Mumbai also scored points a complete match against Jamshedpur FC, they were expected to reach a 3-0 victory, as the second half resulted in a 1-1 draw.

Mohun Bagan have changed since the return of Antonio Lopez Habas, the most successful coach in the short history of the ISL. It is no longer this team that exited the AFC Cup after losing three in a row in December, the double whammy that cost Juan Ferrando his job.“He (Habas) brought energy. We missed that,” Aramando Sadiku said. Watch Sadiku’s volley against Kerala Blasters here. Habas has lost the ISL title and shield to Mumbai before a heavy defeat in 2021 precipitated his ouster. He wants to change this time. “I hate losing,” he said after the 4-3 win over Kerala Blasters. Mohun Bagan won six of their seven games under Habas and drew with Odisha FC. Including a thrilling win against Kerala Blasters, they scored eight goals and conceded 15. With Jason Cummings (9 goals), Dimitri Petratos (8) and Sadiku (7), Mohun Bagan are the only team with three players in the top 10 scoring. Cummings-Habas-Petratos Headlock told his own story in Kochi on Wednesday. So did the return of revolutionary Joni Kauko. To utilize Kauko, Mohun Bagan canceled the list of Hugo Boumas, who would have moved to any ISL team, but did not release the playmaker. The senior midfielder is vital in adding weight to the attack as well as adding defence. The magic word for Habas is “balance” and it was given by Kouko. Back more than a year after his ACL injury, Kauko was the player Mohun Bagan missed under Ferrando, especially when Carl McHugh left.

Visitors are a big difference in the ISL, East Bengal coach Carles Quadrat said ahead of the 1-3 defeat in the Kolkata derby. Those in Mohun Bagan’s front row have proved it. Add to that the fact that Kauko is the most influential midfielder since Greg Stewart, the quality of those Indian regulars led by the ever-zealous Manvir Singh and it is easy to understand why Mohun Bagan were understand it. Under Habas, Mohun Bagan were made even more visible. Ferrando sought power by taking a job; Habas doesn’t think the opposition has the ball.

Keeping Baumas in hibernation is one proof of Mohun Bagan’s financial muscle. Aniruddha Thapa, who was brought in as a late replacement and Liston Kolako, who came to Kerala even later, are some others.

If the race for the top spot is exciting, so is the battle for the other two spots in the top six. Every team except Hyderabad FC who stunned Chennaiyin FC to win their first title, although Kerala Blasters are in the best position to challenge for a spot. You need three points in three games. Punjab FC, who have been promoted from the I-League this season, can do the same. That will give 2023-24 runaway I-League leaders Mohamed Sporting hope. Odisha FC’s elimination from the AFC Cup should ease the buzz around the ISL. The inter-regional semi-finals have featured the deepest ISL teams in Asia’s second-tier league. He was dropped from Bengaluru FC, who played the final in 2016. And before the ISL, Dempo and East Bengal qualified for the semi-finals.

AFC asks for evidence Events inside the AIFF also dampened the exciting times on the field. Soon after the AIFF issued a clean chit to Chairman Kalyan Choubey, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) stepped in. The Asian apex body has sought evidence from the AIFF’s former legal chief, one of the allegations leveled against Choubey has been appropriate This failed to fulfill the promise of the UN president. Choubey assured Igor Stimac that the AIFF would arrange a charter flight to Abha in Saudi Arabia and on March 8, the association issued a press release. However, the group took separate flights from New Delhi and Goa. That means some players will arrive at Abha on Sunday, miss training and the whole squad. Precisely why Stimac sought – and got – the president’s buy-in on this issue, he wondered. “If the AIFF president had told Stimac that he would have a discussion with the executive committee to see if it could be done instead of aiming for it?” he asked. said an AIFF executive committee member

This is not the first time Chaubey has gone public with a promise that his company has not honored. Last September, AIFF issued a press release announcing its partnership with IndiGo. While the AIFF’s former legal chief questioned the deal , Chaubey said it had not been signed. The following is an excerpt from this week’s HT Kick Off.

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