Bengaluru FC and the art of winning trophies

Bengaluru FC are yet to celebrate their fifth birthday. Yet, they now have five trophies. One for each year.

Back in March, when a forlorn Gurpreet Singh had a microphone stuck in his face minutes after Bengaluru FC lost the Indian Super League final, he had said: "I believe we won the league phase and so we are the champions."

In hindsight, it was an ill-timed comment. But then again, nobody had questioned him when he had tweeted "#LeagueHotiToKyaHota" (What would have happened if this was a league) when they had topped the league with games to spare.

Nevertheless, it underlined what was important at the club, what was important to the club. The habit of winning has always been woven into the fabric of this great club and that has always rubbed off on its players. The memories of one bad day are not allowed to linger.

They simply move on to the next game.

There was a dream when the club was formed in 2013 by JSW in a city that was hungry for a football club to support. They were ridiculed when they had a 'no-relegation' clause. They were written off when they signed players discarded by some of the established elite in Indian football.

And then they only went and won the I-League title during their first season.

Runners-up next season? No problem, the Federation Cup found a new home in Bengaluru. Both trophies were won twice before they took the all-important decision to move to the ISL.

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For fans, it was a bittersweet moment. The Blues would no longer play the likes of Mohun Bagan and East Bengal - eternal rivalries forged in the fires of the I-League that gave us some truly epic encounters over the years.

But at the same time, the ISL was able to draw more fans and grab eyeballs in an era where sponsorships decided who you could sign and how many. As long as the AFC Cup slot was available, Bengaluru were all for the ISL.

Indian football's roadmap be damned. That was never in their hands anyway. Asia was their main goal where the Blues had nearly brought home a trophy in 2016.

Albert Roca and pretty much everyone at Bengaluru FC were never in favour of the ISL format though - right from day 1. It does not reward consistency, which is probably why no table-topper has ever won it yet. Even a team that finished 10 points behind the leaders had the opportunity to fight for the title.

It was the Blues' downfall as Chennaiyin lifted the trophy but Roca and co were quite gracious about it. They knew the rules, they had no complaints.

They moved on. On to the next game.

In what has been a gruelling schedule, there were still two more trophies to compete for. The inaugural Super Cup and the AFC Cup.

On their part, Bengaluru's squad depth shone through when their second-string sides ensured the Blues qualified for the group stages so the stars could rest for the ISL and Super Cup. It was required for two different reasons.

Firstly, because the club has always prioritised bringing through the youth players. The academy is not for show. It isn't a PR stunt unlike many other "initiatives" that were just glorified photo-ops. And both Ashley Westwood and Roca had no qualms about playing youngsters all these years.

On the other hand, they needed them to step up, what with the first team playing every few days in soaring summer temperatures. Any club that fights on multiple fronts knows that rest and rotation are the keys to success.

While other ISL sides struggled with just the ISL schedule, Bengaluru were juggling the AFC Cup and the ISL, topping both the league table - and now the AFC Cup group too at the halfway stage.

At least one trophy. Every year. The Super Cup (which replaced the Federation Cup) was effectively a shot at redemption for the club after having missed out on the ISL trophy. One more chance at keeping that run intact.

Also read: How Albert Roca's philosophy of beautiful football is taking shape at Bengaluru FC

The new competition was announced towards the end of the ISL and it became a beacon of hope to those teams that could still qualify. Understandably, fans looked forward to ISL teams rubbing shoulders with their I-League counterparts - just so we could judge which league was "better".

Unfortunately, the excitement wasn't the same in the early stages of the Super Cup. Some teams seemed to look at the tournament as a hindrance even though they claimed they were 100% committed.

Newly-crowned champions Chennaiyin were dumped out in the first round as were ATK - the two most successful sides in the ISL. Delhi Dynamos and NorthEast United didn't even make it past the qualifiers.

This was the underlying problem. Most ISL teams only looked to respect the competition. Bengaluru had only one goal - to win the damn thing and bring home a trophy.

Bengaluru had defeated every team in the ISL (at least once) and now they had defeated three of the top four I-League teams this season; Neroca FC in the quarter-finals, Mohun Bagan in the semi-finals, and East Bengal in the final.

Old rivalries were given a new lease of life - at least for the time being. Despite the hate that brews between all sets of fans from Kolkata and Bengaluru, there is mutual respect for each other's achievements, for each other's will to win.

Which is probably why the semi-finals were such enthralling affairs. When these three clubs play each other, form is thrown out the window. They always manage to raise their game a few notches and Bengaluru came through, if not unscathed.

Three goals against Neroca. Four against Mohun Bagan after going down to 10 men. Four more against East Bengal despite playing less than 72 hours after the semi-final. Five trophies in five years.

Many will say Chennaiyin's win was bigger. It is in a way because they qualified for the AFC Cup. But in the grander scheme of things, it is debatable.

On paper, they won two knockout games to win the ISL title after finishing eight points behind the Blues. Bengaluru won four knockout games in a 20-day period where they played six times (including the AFC Cup) to clinch their fifth trophy.

All hail Bengaluru FC, the true champions of Indian football. Tongue in cheek? Don't expect the Blues to turn the other cheek.

They'll simply move on. On to the next game. The next trophy. As they always have.