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THE JOURNEY HAS JUST BEGAN - by Prithwijit Majumdar
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After a pretty forgettable 2003,2004 has heralded a new spring for "The Mariners". A bunch of immensely talented players with our very own Subrata Bhattacharyya at the helm of affairs has instilled a renewed sense of hope among the teeming millions of Mohun Bagan supporters. While its mid-November when I am writing this and the team is still without a trophy, one can really bring home a lot of positives from our performance this season.
Firstly the quality of football we have played this season has been attractive ,our midfield has blossomed time and again and our oppositon coaches would definitely bear testimony to this.Defence has by far been compact under the able guidance of Du, our new found hero.In the forward line we have had the reincarnation of Sunil Chettry and I sincerely believe that a full fit Ashim Biswas together with a powerful striker would terrorise rival defences in the forthcoming matches.
Coming to IFA Shield, we had done well . Beginning with a 9 goal victory in an international match is by no means a matter of joke.Coupled with that was the win against the arch rivals,that too in a troubled circumstance under the absence of a few key players. In the final too we played a good game and despite leading for about 119 minutes, a momentary lapse cost us pretty dearly.
Next came the Durand Cup. It witnessed a spirited display on our part as we romped into the semis effortlessly crushing Assam Rifles and SBT on the way. The semifinal clash against Salgaonkar too was a fight to remember where our young custodian Subrata Paul fought gallantly and saved a couple of penalties to see us through thereby setting the stage for an EB-MB final, the "Clash of the Titans". From a football point of view the final proved to be a one sided affair.The match boiled to a fight between a dominant MB midfield and a rusty EB defence with their goalkeeper Rajat Ghoshdastidar having to make a series of good saves.But it was the referee Mr. P.K. Bose who turned out to be a spoiler by awarding a dubious penalty to EB much against the run of play. Though Bagan came back into the match pretty strongly and equalized but a late excellent strike from Chandan Das ultimately sealed it in EB's favor. Yes disappointment yet again.
But to us its only the beginning.Our Club is more than a 115 years old and has weathered a lot of troubled seasons.I sincerely believe that this is a passing phase bound to end pretty soon,with all probabilities in the forthcoming Federation Cup itself. However there are a few problems that need to addresed at the earliest. Firstly we need a well built and powerful quality foreign striker.This would create enough space for our medios and other forwards.
With the signing of Ancheri though the problem with blocker has been resolved yet we do require a good stopper as many of our defenders including Du is injured.Also if we analyse we would see that in both the finals as well as in a few CFL games we have conceded late goals ,a trend which needs to be properly taken care of.
To sum it up I really believe that theres no need for us to worry about anything.We are playing well and sooner or later that's going to bring home the results.With due perseverance and proper tactical planning I am sure we can turn the tide in our favour so that we can regain the Fedreation Cup and NFL which would definitely wipe out all the feeling of sadness from our hearts.
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