It was expected to be an emotionally-charged return to Kolkata for Antonio Habas, this time as coach of FC Pune City rather than Atletico de Kolkata, but the fact that Kolkata are through to the playoffs with their last game to spare and Pune are already out of the reckoning has robbed their match on December 2 of that sheen.
Two players who would still be looking to make a lasting impression for Pune are Anibal Zurdo and Eduardo Ferreira, who starred in their previous meeting on November 6, scoring Pune's goals in a 2-1 win.
"My face is still broken, I think. I couldn't see anything after the collision," says Eduardo, remembering the match against Kolkata. "While coming out of the field, the doctor told me strictly to not play anymore. I just had a premonition I would score."
Eduardo would go on to score his first and only goal thus far of the season to give his team a 1-0 lead, not long before being taken away from the stadium in an ambulance after suffering a concussion. "I just made a movement and I scored, purely because I had adrenaline flowing at that point of time," recalls Eduardo. "When the game restarted, everything went blank and I remember waking up next in hospital the next morning. When you love what you do, you don't mind incidents like this one."
Anibal, who is Mexican but also holds a Spanish nationality, believes Pune have paid the price for a slow start. It's a phase of the league he found the most difficult personally. "The only major difficulty early on was being away from family for so many days. It was challenging to feel so homesick," says Pune's top scorer this season with five goals. "Why we have not performed as well as we hoped is down to the start we had. Another reason we struggled was the constant travelling. Sometimes the whole day would go in just going from one place to another."
Eduardo, who is playing in India for the first time, was encouraged by his friend and team mate Jonatan Lucca, who had spent the 2015 season playing for FC Goa. "This year, the Indians and the foreigners have played very hard. What I like best about the Indians is they always want to improve in the field."
Eduardo was born in Brazil and was hoping to play for South Africa, where he was domiciled as a club player, when the African nation hosted the World Cup in 2010. But fate intervened in an unusual manner.
"I went to Colombia for a match, and I pulled off some six or seven good tackles. At the end of the game, two gentlemen came up to me to congratulate me for my performance. They introduced themselves as the president of Equatorial Guinea, and the national team coach. I thought they were joking," says Eduardo. "It was a crazy situation, because they called me over the phone, and I still thought they were playing a practical joke. It was when he (Equatorial Guinea president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo) passed the phone to his son, that I realised they were actually serious about having me play for the national team."
The international debut eventually came in an international friendly on November 17, 2013 against a quality Spain side, where Equatorial Guinea were beaten by goals from Santi Cazorla and Juanfran. "It was a team that had Andres Iniesta, Pedro Gonzalez and Xabi Alonso. We lost 2-1, but we missed some great opportunities," says Eduardo, who came on as a second-half substitute.
Anibal, who picks out the header which gave him his first of two goals against Delhi Dynamos in a manic 4-3 win in Pune as his favourite this season, says he has enjoyed visiting Delhi and Pune the most, the former in particular for the monuments where "the locals were very friendly and helpful". Like a lot of foreigners associated with the ISL, he believes a longer league is the way forward.
"A good foreign coach can come and imbibe a lot of knowledge, but the longer the league goes on, the more the Indian players will learn. In Spain, people have devoted time and energy into understanding and studying football for several years," says Anibal. "We must have more teams, and most importantly more time between games. Due to the packed schedule, a lot of upcoming Indian players don't get enough chances in the current format."
Eduardo picks the "compact and balanced" Mumbai City as his favourite team in this year's ISL. "Towards the start of the league, NorthEast United were very impressive with their speed and technique. I also enjoyed playing against Chennaiyin," he adds.
So will 2017 see him return for a second stint in India? "My friends ask me about India and what this has been like, and I only say good things about the football here, the fans and the atmosphere," says the defender. "I have enjoyed travelling around the country. The atmosphere in the stadiums is very good, since people come to the stadium only to enjoy the football. If given a chance, I would love to come back."