#TFGtake - The Last Samba: ISL the stage for two Brazilian greats to fight it out one last time

ONE OF THE ways ISL has made itself interesting for fans who follow the sport closely is by throwing up these scenarios that wouldn't happen in the "real world", at least not in the near future. Like, how would David James's natural on-field leadership qualities translate into a managerial role? Or, what would happen if you trusted Nicolas Anelka with an entire football team?

The former would take years to happen in a real football league; David James won't complete his UEFA A-License for a while now. The latter qualifies as an eccentric experiment carried out by reckless anthropoligists. But all of them have come to pass already, thanks to the crazy minds at the Indian Super League. 

Not to mention the transformation of Marco Materazzi from a headstrong player to a heady head coach; all within 4 months of concentrated action. That won't happen anywhere else either. 

But one of the most cerebral contests that ISL presented the fans this year is the footballing duel between Roberto Carlos and Zico. It stands out from other ISL "sensations" in the sense that it is less gimmicky; both Zico and Carlos have both acquired their respective licenses and spent a few years coaching in different clubs. Zico has been coaching since 2002 and had relatively successful spells with the Japan national team and Fenerbahce; while Roberto Carlos has been in the coaching circuit since 2013, at Turkish clubs Sivasspor and Akhisar Belediyespor. But both these footballing personalities - World Cup-winning legends of two generations of Briazilian football - coming face to face as coaches, is a rare occurence indeed. 

And we don't know when they will face each other again in the sidelines. Roberto Carlos's coaching profile has received a lot of boost from what he has done at Delhi Dynamos. He's got a few offers from Spain and Brazil and that's where he will go off to once ISL is done with. Zico, meanwhile, is preparing for his run as the FIFA President. This is his last year as the FC Goa manager. This rarity makes tonight's second leg encounter between Delhi Dynamos and FC Goa something of a must-see; a vintage encounter that culminates the Brazilian rivalry in ISL that has been slowly unfolding this season.  

The two teams faced each other under different circumstances. And each time, the game has been different; and the results carried a different significance.

The first was the season opener game for both teams and they played on pre-season training, technical strenth and fresh legs. FC Goa had taken that match, riding high on raw talent, fantastic home support and better understanding of each other. Then, they met in the very last match of the regular season, at a point when it was inevitable that they would face each other in the semi-finals. Both teams made a number of changes in their squad as they sparred in preparation for the big fight. It was a hard-fought contest that never bored and FC Goa took it 3-2. 

Days later, coming into the first leg of the semi-finals, the pressure was definitely on home team Delhi Dynamos. Until then, the two franchises had met 4 times and FC Goa had claimed the victory every single time. That's not the kind of team you want to face in the semi-finals. 

But that's what Delhi Dynamos set out to do and yet again it was a different game. The Lions came through with the percentage football they had successfully carried out throughout their campaign; grinding out narrow wins and turning losses into draws. They got the lead courtesy a Robin Singh goal and sucessfully contained the fearsome Goa attack to deny them a single goal; something that doesn't happen to them often and has certainly never happened against Delhi before. The "winning mentality" that Carlos spoke of in his first press conference as the Delhi Dynamos coach... well he seems to be walking the talk.

And now that Carlos will go up against Zico in a few hours' time, the contest is fittingly open-ended. Delhi lead by just one home goal; and with an attack of FC Goa's calibre and the weight of their phenomenal home support, it's not hard to overcome a 1 goal deficit. 

But Carlos says he isn't worried. Arriving in Goa, he said,

"We want to win 2-0. Because if there's a draw they get into many boring equation that I don't like at all... I've told players to play an attacking game, target the goal from the start and take an early lead."

Zico, meanwhile, has dismissed the 1-0 loss his team suffered away from home. He said,

"Goa didn't play better than us in the first leg. We missed a number of chances that's why they won. We don't want to repeat that mistake."

Does Zico have more to lose tonight that Carlos? Roberto's relationship with Delhi Dynamos is only a few months old. He came in, took over as a player-coach, thankfully decided not to continue playing after two appearances, managed to qualify for the playoffs as the fourth team on the table, and he has already announced his future separation from the franchise.

Zico, on the other hand, has been with FC Goa since its inception. It's the very first time he has been given the chance to build a footballing institution from the ground up, and he has undertaken that task with care. Zico's influence is apparent in everything that FC Goa does. The team they are playing this year carried forward the best from last year and combines it with new elements that Zico has added thoughtfully in keeping with the experience he has picked up in the country; a potent mix of local talent combined with an unmistakable Brazilian flavour. For any Indian fan who favours Brazil in the big tournaments, this team is a dream come true. And we have seen its fire-power at play; they finished the regular season at the top of the table.

Winning the ISL will be a better statement for Zico's FIFA Presidency bid than any speech he can make. Come 2016, his PR team will point at that trophy and portray Zico as a man of the turf, someone whose connection to the sport extends far beyond his marvelous playing career. Someone capable of cultivating the sport in new shores. Japan improved a lot under him, and he even helped football grow in India, the next big project for FIFA marketing heads. He will be presented as the anti-thesis of boardroom blokes like Blatter. 

And the one person who can take out much of the bling from that narrative is another Brazilian, Roberto Carlos, who is raiding Fatorda with the intention of robbing FC Goa of their long-cherished dream of ISL glory. The stakes in this fight are far-reaching and multi-faceted.

That's probably why tonight's match will be one of the most special games in the history of ISL. The narrative around this match doesn't have a humanitarian angle like the Chennai-ATK encounter (Materazzi's boys fighting for the pride of a city ravaged by natural disaster) but from a purely footballing point of view, 'The Last Samba' is a showdown rich and brimming with significance. 

Cultivated dominance versus calculative winning mentality. A quest for dynamic greatness versus a will to prove oneself. A battle between two generations of Brazilian football on Indian soil. Only ISL could set up an occasion like this.