2. ATK vs Mumbai City FC 12, October 2014. Attendance – 65,000
The very first game in ISL was this humdinger. ISL started its journey as a premier football competition on the 12th of October, 2014 at the Salt Lake stadium in Kolkata. The who’s who of the entertainment industry, pioneer industrialists and noteworthy politicians all gathered to celebrate football. And the game didn’t disappoint. Two powerhouses locked horns for the very first time and ATK were just better on the day.
Fikru scored the first goal in ISL history a little past halfway into the first half. The second half some end to end action before Borja Fernandez scored an absolute screamer past Subrata Pal to double ATK’s lead. ATK added a third goal in stoppage time through Arnal Llibert and ATK went onto win their first game as well as the first game of the ISL.
3. Kerala Blasters vs Delhi Dynamos 18, October 2015. Attendance – 62,087
Kerala Blasters took on the Delhi Dynamos after the International break where the Indian National side was competing in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. Both sides bolstered by the return of their Indian stars met at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi hoping to get a win after the restart. Gustavo dos Santos created many problems for the home side in the opening 15 mins as two his attempts on goal were thwarted away by Bywater. Pulga could have put the Blasters ahead right before half-time but his free-kick was cleared off the line by Robin Singh.
CK Vineeth did manage to break the deadlock with a tap in from an Ishfaq Ahmed cutback, but the latter was offside. Richard Gadze was sent in for the Dynamos to get that all elusive goal and he almost did have an immediate impact, but his effort from the Florent Malouda through pass could only find the side netting. But Gadze wasn’t so unlucky the second time around and just 3 minutes before the end of regulation time his strike put the Dynamos ahead and Delhi were able to hold on to their 1 goal advantage to earn a hard-fought victory against the Blasters.