Ninety-four minutes from a title: the 2014 final

Flashback · 20 December 2014 · ISL final, DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai

Four days after surviving Chennai, the Blasters were in Navi Mumbai for the first final the Indian Super League ever played. The opponents were Atlético de Kolkata. The man in charge was David James, still the player-manager, and the club was not yet three months old as a league side.

For ninety minutes and more, nobody scored.

The goal came in the fourth minute of stoppage time. Jakub Podaný swung in a corner, and Mohammed Rafique, who had come off the bench, met it with his head. 1–0. There was no time to answer.

That is the whole match in one line, and for a long time it was the line Blasters supporters least wanted to read. A final decided by a substitute's header from a set piece, at the very end, when extra time was a few seconds away.

It also set the tone for what was to come. This was the first of three ISL finals for Kerala Blasters. Each one would be close. None would be won.

But read it the other way and it says something else. In their first season the Blasters reached the semi-finals, survived a night in Chennai with ten men, and came within one stoppage-time corner of the title. Not many clubs start like that.

Rafique's goal is at 0:14 in this ISL clip.

Written by the footballkerala.com desk with AI help, from the published sources listed here, and checked by an editor. Sources: Wikipedia (2014 Indian Super League final; 2014 Kerala Blasters FC season), Onmanorama, The News Minute.