HYDERABAD, INDIA: No one can prepare a club for its first week in a national league, especially the Indian Football League (IFL). Nagaland United, Samaleswari SC and FC Bengaluru United each arrived in the IFL this season with a plan, a squad and a story of how they got here. Within days, the league had added a chapter of its own to each. Nagaland United won on the opening night in Srinagar and have waited a week to play again.
Samaleswari have twice taken established sides to the final whistle and twice come away with nothing. Bengaluru United were beaten by the last header of their debut and won their second match the same way. With one promotion place to the Indian Super League (ISL) at stake across a full home-and-away season, it is early. But a first week tells a club a great deal about itself, and these three have learned more than most.
Three roads to the same league
Nagaland United’s road to the IFL was at once the shortest and the longest. The club was founded in Chümoukedima in 2024 and played its first match in January 2025, in the inaugural Nagaland Super League. The state it represents, though, has waited far longer. On July 31, 1948, Talimeren Ao led India out against France at the London Olympics, without boots like most of his teammates. In the 78 years since, Nagaland had never had a club in the national league. A goodwill agreement with Aizawl FC, approved by the AIFF on September 9, changed that.
The club inherited a squad with national-league experience, but its board set one principle from the start: Naga players come first. Samaleswari’s road began in a village. The club was founded in 2006 at Pitapali, near the Hirakud Reservoir, about 15km from Sambalpur, and it built an academy long before it built a reputation. Last season it was in the fourth tier. Then came a breakthrough year: a first Durand Cup, a 3-2 win over Mohammedan SC in Kolkata, and Delhi FC’s place in the IFL.
Ten of Abdul Azim Siddique’s players are from Odisha, and the coach called the debut “a historic moment for Samaleswari Sporting and for Odisha”. FC Bengaluru United took the road to the IFL that cannot be shortened. They spent seven years trying to climb out of the third tier and finally managed it last season, finishing as I-League 2 runners-up and edging out United SC for promotion on goal difference. Nallappan Mohanraj, the former India international who coaches them, kept the core of that side together. They are the only club from Karnataka in the league.
Nagaland United – A beginning in the IFL worth the wait
Kaizad Ambapardiwalla had only weeks to turn a new squad into a team. “With limited time, it was important to get the players on the same page, understand our style of play and build confidence within the group,” he said. In Srinagar on October 30, the work showed inside three minutes. A long throw caused chaos in the Real Kashmir box, JH Remlala swept in the loose ball, and the first goal of the 2026-27 season belonged to a club founded only two years ago.
When Vanlalhriatzuala doubled the lead, a side with five under-22 players in its starting XI was two goals up on its national-league debut. Then came the kind of moment that shows what a team is made of. Just before the hour, Rohmingthanga turned a cross into his own net. He is the former Aizawl defender who links the old club to the new one, and he now wears the armband. “Of course, it was a difficult moment, but we knew we couldn’t afford to lose our focus,” he said.
From the touchline, Ambapardiwalla’s message was simple. “I told them to stay calm and keep believing in themselves,” he said. “These moments are part of football, and what matters is how you respond.” Nagaland United responded soon in the IFL. Vanlalhriatzuala scored again with a quarter of an hour left, and the debutants left Srinagar with a 3-1 win. For the captain, who has played in the IFL before, it meant something personal. “To now lead Nagaland United SC and help the club begin its journey with a win means a lot,” he said.
Samaleswari – Pride without points
Samaleswari have spent their first week finding out how fine the margins are in the IFL. In Kozhikode on October 31, they were two goals down at half-time to Gokulam Kerala, two-time national champions. They could have taken the lesson quietly. Instead, they came back, first through an own goal from a long throw, the same route by which Nagaland United had scored a day earlier, and then through a 90th-minute penalty from Jorge Pereyra Diaz. For seven minutes, a club from a village near Hirakud held a former national champion. Then Crislan rose for a header, and the point was gone.
“Football can be cruel sometimes, but we must learn from these moments,” Siddique said afterwards. He also set the measure by which his side should be judged: “One result will not define our season. Our response to this defeat will define our character.” The response came in Rourkela on November 5, in front of a home crowd seeing the IFL in their city for the first time. Dempo, who had already beaten Bengaluru United, led 2-0, but Samaleswari kept coming.
In the 82nd minute, the young defender Kartik Choudhary spotted the goalkeeper off his line and lobbed him from 35 yards. It was quickly hailed as the goal of the season so far. Deep in stoppage time, a chance fell in front of goal and went begging. They lost 1-2. Two matches, no points. Yet both times Samaleswari were still pushing at the end against clubs with years in this division. In a first season, that counts for something. By the measure Siddique set, they have answered.
Bengaluru United – The lesson and the answer
No debutant learned the IFL’s lesson more painfully than FC Bengaluru United, and none answered it more quickly. At the Fatorda Stadium in Margao on November 1, against five-time champions Dempo, they did almost everything right. They defended with discipline, grew into the match after the break, and were nearly through eight minutes of stoppage time when Dempo won a corner, and Uzziel Budu headed it in.
“This was our first-ever IFL match, and considering how we held on until the 98th minute, I believe a draw would have been a fair result,” Mohanraj said. “However, this is football, and if you switch off even for a moment in the 98th minute, you will be punished.” He promised his players would “ensure that we do not concede set-piece goals like this in our upcoming matches”. Five days later, at the Bangalore Football Stadium, they conceded no set-piece goals and scored three.
Marat Tarek headed the club’s first IFL goal from a corner, and two more headers put them in control against Mohammedan SC. But Mohammedan kept coming back, and when they drew level at 3-3 in the 78th minute, the Fatorda story seemed ready to repeat itself. This time it turned the other way. In the first minute of stoppage time, Lalramdinsanga Ralte played a short corner and crossed, and substitute Akshunna Tyagi headed the winner. Bengaluru United lost their first match to a late header from a corner. They won their second with one.
What the first week taught
Taken together, the week has a clear shape. On the opening weekend, three matches were decided at the 90-minute mark or later, and every one of those late winners came from an established club. Nagaland United faced their own test, but it came in the 59th minute, with time left to answer it.
Samaleswari and Bengaluru United were tested when there was no time left at all. That kind of knowledge cannot be signed or drilled in pre-season. It is learned in the minutes after the 90th, usually at a cost. Bengaluru United have already turned that cost into a win. Samaleswari are still paying it, but they have not stopped pushing their cause in the IFL.
Coming home
Dempo, who have beaten both of those debutants, lead the IFL table. Nagaland United are third and still unbeaten, and they have not played since October 30. On November 14, they come home to face Gokulam Kerala at Chümoukedima, in a stadium younger than the club itself. For Ghuqhe Chishi, one of the two under-20 graduates the club celebrated before the season, it is the match he has been waiting for.
“Playing in front of our own people, representing Nagaland and wearing this jersey on home ground is something I am really looking forward to,” he said. “We want to make them proud, and we will give everything on the pitch.” Talimeren Ao’s state waited 78 years for a club in the national league. Its first one seems in no mood to wait for anything in the IFL.
Cover image courtesy: Special arrangement
[This story has been generated from a syndicated feed and contains only minor edits]
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