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#8 Chennai City FC (5.5/10)
The one-man team will be the best description of the team from Tamil Nadu. They relied heavily on Michael Soosairaj (the league’s midfielder of the season), and the man did eventually bail them out on a couple of occasions.
The days Soosairaj failed Chennai seemed to drift into an abyss. Off-field issues seemed to hamper their season as well, with a rift between the players and the coach being highlighted during the season.
The positives for them though would be the performance of their young Indian players like Michael, and Arjun.
They had a disappointing Super Cup campaign as they crashed out in the qualifiers to ATK after losing 4-1. They were completely overrun in the game and failed to do anything meaningful during the 90 minutes.
#7 Gokulam Kerala FC(7/10)
The newest kid in the block, Gokulam got off to a slow start in the I-League but eventually gained speed and went on to earn the tag of ‘Giant Killers’ after having beaten the all the top placed teams.
It was Gokulam’s late surge in the league that disrupted a lot of equations, for the other teams. Good foreign signings with a young, energetic Indian contingent seemed to have worked wonders for Gokulam this season.
A lot of the ISL and I-League clubs have already started poaching their players for next season.
Gokulam continued their dream late run into the Super Cup. They eliminated Northeast United in the first round and almost eliminated eventual Champions Bengaluru FC in the second round.
Gokulam’s seventh spot finish in the I-League and Second Round exit in the Super Cup can eventually count as a huge success given the club spent the first half of the season sitting in the relegation spot.
