If there is one team that has been making a steady progress in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL), it has to be Delhi Dynamos FC. They ended as the fifth-placed team during the inaugural season in 2014, fourth in the next and third in the last one. While it is always advisable to take one step at a time, for the upcoming season, they would want to skip that habit and grab a maiden title.Twice they have been thwarted in the semi-finals, and on both occasions, they had won their home leg losing out mainly due to lack of composure and hard luck. The Dynamos have always been in the thick of things, however. They initiated the legendary Alessandro Del Piero into the league, and the Italian along with Gustavo Dos Santos and Bruno Pelissary displayed some splendid attacking football. Eventually though, they would lose out on the semi-final berth by a point.That would come through in the following seasons. Dos Santos, Pelissary, Adil Nabi and Richard Gadze would score 13 times among themselves to steer Delhi into the last four. They had one step into the final as well, thanks to Robin Singh’s winner in the home leg. But FC Goa in their own den had other ideas as they hit back. And they hit back hard. Pumping in three goals in front of their jubilant spectators, they rendered the other scoreline useless.Last season though was by far the Lions’ best. They were branded as the league entertainers with three of their foreign players coming to the party again. A certain Brazilian called Marcelo Leite Pereira took the ISL by storm. Better known as Marcelinho, the deadly forward scored almost at will for Delhi, and eventually was awarded the Golden Boot by the end of the season. Ex-Chelsea FC winger Florent Malouda also got in on the act with his clinical finishing combined with his knack of finding the right passes. Consequently, the Frenchman was also named Hero of the League. Richard Gadze too was at his best, and Kean Lewis established himself as a talented and flamboyant winger. With the best attacking record in the league (they scored 29 times in all), Delhi Dynamos entered the semi-finals high on confidence. While they had a setback away to Kerala Blasters FC, the 1-0 loss was looked upon as a minor hiccup. Surely, the Lions would annihilate their opponents at home? Well, they did win, but the 2-1 victory meant that the tie went to a penalty shootout after the aggregate over two legs was all square following 210 minutes of football. It was a shootout to forget as the Lions missed all three of their spot-kicks and the joyous Blasters went on to meet eventual champions ATK in the final.A longer version of the league awaits the Dynamos this time around. But that is not really the problem. The Lions have lost a good chunk of the team that brought them success last season. The trio of Marcelinho, Kean Lewis and Spanish midfielder Marcos Tebar departed for FC Pune City. They got shaken defensively too as two of their standout defensive lynchpins, centre-back Anas Edathodika and right-back Souvik Chakraborty were drafted in by ISL debutants Jamshedpur FC.The Dynamos brought in a nice mix of foreign players as two Dutchmen (Jeroen Lumu and Guyon Fernandez), a Brazilian (Paulinho Dias), a Spaniard (Edu Moya), a Venezuelan (Gabriel Cichero) and a Uruguayan (Matias Mirabaje) join Nigerian Kalu Uche, the latter being the only overseas player from the team with prior ISL experience.Delhi have signed some strong defenders though, as former ATK right-back Pritam Kotal joins the squad along with the hardy left-back from Mumbai City FC, Sena Ralte. Seityasen Singh, an important contributor in the middle of the park, joins in from NorthEast United FC, while talented shot-stopper Albino Gomes also made the switch from the Mumbaikars.While the Lions have got plenty of talent to offer on the football pitch, the fact remains that apart from a few Indian players, there is not much experience, at least ISL-related. However, this can be used as an advantage to begin with as after completely changing the structure of the squad, they will have the surprise factor going for them. As the season progresses though, it would be interesting to see whether the players gel and become one lethal unit that they are most certainly capable of.Delhi Dynamos visit FC Pune City for their opening fixture on November 22. Click here for the complete Hero Indian Super League schedule.