Month: December 2011

11th round :Mariners to meet Salgaokar

Souvik Goswami, an ardent Mohun Bagan fan feels Bagan should utilize the chance of moving up to top two of the I League table after Churchill Brothers went down to Pune FC today. McDowell Mohun Bagan will be facing the defending Champion Salgoacar Club in the 11th round of the I League tomorrow at the Salt Lake Stadium. It is a very good chance for Mariners to get back the 2nd position in the table if they come out as the winners in the match. In fact we have an outside chance of getting into the top of the table in case Dempo loses points in their match tomorrow.

Mohun Bagan will miss the service of consistent Kingshuk Debnath in the defence and the improving Pradeep in the midfield due to double bookings. It will be a big challenge for the TD and coach to fill up the gap. It is expected either Rakesh Masih or inexperienced but talented Sourav Chackroborty to take Kingshuk’s place in the stopper position. Bagan will continue to miss the services of Sunil Chettri and Zeleni due to injuries, however, there is some probability that ever reliable Barreto and the skilful Lima may make a comeback into the side after recovering from injuries. Ashim Biswas seems to be fit and may also be fielded in the team.

Till now, besides, Kingshuk, Sangram Mukherjee under the goal, Rahim Nabi, Jewel Raja and Odafa  have performed well in the I League and again the performance of these four should decide the fate of tomorrow’s match. We expect Surkumar, Anwar  and Rakesh Masih find some form and contribute to the team’s success.

On the other hand, Salgoacar consists a host of ex Mohun Bagan players. This includes the coach Karim along with popular Chiddi, Ishfaq Ahmed, Sueka, Biswajit Shah, Tomba Singh and Mehrajuddin. Chiddi and Sueka combination can be dangerous for our defence in absence of Kingshuk. This will be the first time Chiddi will be playing against Mohun Bagan after he left the club premises in tears . It will be indeed an emotional moment both for Chiddi and many Mohun Bagan fans. However, we wish Chiddi to remain emotional and does not score tomorrow or even play well.

We hope to come out winners tomorrow and establish our firm position in the I League table and would like to wise the team all the best for tomorrow’s match.


McDowell Mohun Bagan 1 – 1 Sporting Clube de Goa

The round 10 match of I League between Mohun Bagan vs Sporting Clube de Goa ended in a draw held at Yuba Bharati Krirangan. Rahim Nabi the only goal scorer for the host in the 72nd minute of the match while six minutes later Kalu Ogba scored via penalty to level the score for Sporting de Goa.

The match saw not a very high quality football, while Mariners played well in the first twenty minutes of the match. But after that SCG made comeback into the match with good ball control in the midfield as well as failure of defensive players of Bagan.

Today Bagan TD kept single striker as Odafa because Barreto, Sunil, Ashim all are unfit. In the 12th minute of second half  Manish was replaced by Dhanrajan and Nabi changed his position to forward. Just before that N. P. Pradeep was cautioned by the referee and will miss next match.

In the 72nd minute from a counter attack Nabi scored the goal for Bagan but very soon around 78th minute  Bagan conceeded a goal via Penalty by Kalu Ogba, contributed by the hand ball of Kingshuk Debnath. Due to the handball he was shown yellow card and he will miss the next match against Salgaocar as well on 22nd December at Kolkata. However, Bagan players have to be careful about the yellow card shown by the referee. As many as six players are already cautioned in the I League matches once.

In the 74th minute Jewel’s head from a cross of Snehasis hit the post otherwise it could have been 2-0 in the favour of Bagan. But sheer bad luck for Bagan and Jewel as well as the fans of Mohun Bagan.

Nabi was adjudged as Man of the match. The home team’s supporters again left the stadium with deep breath and absolute frustration.

McDowell Mohun Bagan will play next against Salgaocar S.C.at Kolkata on Thursday, 22nd December. Kick-off time : 2pm.

Mohun Bagan: Sangram, Surkumar, Kingshuk, Anwar, Nabi, Manish (Dhanrajan), Jewel, Masih, Pradeep (Souvick), Snehasis, Odafa.

Yellow Card: Pradeep (Misses next match), Kingshuk (Misses next match).

Let the Immortal XI be the first ones from Sports

The Bharat Ratna category has been broadened by the government of India and excellence in all fields of human endeavour is the new eligibility norm after the Prime Minister’s Office has accepted the Ministry of Home Affairs’ recommendation of broad basing the Bharat Ratna category. It can be greats like Dhyan Chand who in his capacity helped Indian hockey team become world’s number one, it can be Sachin Tendulkar. But why not the immortal XI? This is an appeal to the Prime Minister of India – let the Immortal XI who won the IFA Shield for Mohun Bagan 100 years ago be the first one (as a team) to be awarded the Bharat Ratna (Posthumous)