Kerala Blasters, the Kochi-based franchise co-owned by Sachin Tendulkar, were agonisingly close to being referred to as the first champions of the Indian Super League (ISL) in 2014.
Blasters took one game at a time and resurrected their mistakes to challenge the tougher sides in the tournament. They were indeed unlucky in the final as they could not win the ISL title.
They had won five matches and were second to Chennaiyin FC and FC Goa's win tally. The defending champions, Atletico de Kolkata, literally sneaked into the finals after winning four games only.
On their road to the ISL 2014 final, they had scored a number of stunning and match turning goals. It was for this very reason they became one of the most threatening sides of the Indian Super League season one.
Watch top 5 goals of Kerala Blasters from ISL season 1 here.
Penn Orji, Ian Hume, Sushanth Mathews, Milagres Gonsalves, Pedro Gusmao, Steven Pearson and others have contributed in Kerala Blasters' scoresheet in the first season of the pompous league. This particular video does have a couple of goals from Orji, one from Hume and one each from Gonsalves and Gusmao. But it should have had two spell-binding goals from Mathews and Pearson.
It was Pearson's goal that had sent the Blasters into the big final of ISL 2014. That was probably one of the most important goals that Pearson had scored in his life.
Later, in the final against Atletico de Kolkata, former Sunderland striker Michael Chopra could have engraved his name in the history but he failed to score at two simple chances, one of which was saved brilliantly by Edel Bete.
Nonetheless, Blasters are the only ISL side who did not travel abroad to hold their pre-season training. They wanted the players to acclimatise with the hot and humid Indian conditions in which they will be playing from 3 October. As Sachin Tendulkar has reiterated, Blasters have an immensely talented side and they have the potential to win the ISL 2015.
Watch out for other teams.
