MB Day celebrated with great pomp and show It has been 119 years since the emergence of Mohn Bagan Athletic Club as an icon of supreme devotion towards the nation, Mohun Bagan glorified its own history by making achievements which not only quantize its green and maroon colour but the tri colour as a whole. Such an impeccable incident was the victory of IFA Shield on 29th July, 1911. To salute the spirit of the “immortal eleven”, the day has been celebrated as Mohun Bagan Day.

It was slightly an off coloured celebration due to the unexpected defeat over Mohammedan Sporting Club just the day before but still countless people gathered on that occasion.
The proceedings started with a felicitaion fashion of Mohun Bagan U-13 squad having an encounter with Veterans Sports Club U-13. Tough it was an exhibition match both the teams put their strengths to win it but ironically the match was ended in a one all score line.

 

 

 Later on the U-13 squad was felicitated for their victory in all India level and wished their success in upcoming Paris tour. There were two more friendly matches involving the ex-players, artist forum of Kolkata and Calcutta Sports Journalist Club.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally the moment came when the Mohun Bagan Ratna Award was given to M.A. Sattar. It is also to be mentioned Bhaichung Bhutia has been honored for having the Padmasri Award. On behalf of Bhachung Bhutia ,Madhuri Tipnis his better half collected the memento from Hon. Joint Secretary Mr. Anjan Mitra.

 

 

 

 

There were notable attendance of great players of past like Chuni Goswami, Sanath Seth, Sahu Mewala, P. Kannan,Shibaji Banerjee, Compton Dutta Sisir Ghosh, Krishnendu Roy, Sisir Ghosh, Subrata Bhattacharya and many more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

The teams for the friendly matches ..

Mohun Bagan today lost 3 vital points against Mohammedan Sporting. They were defeated by 2-1 in a Kolkata Premier League match held in Salt Lake Stadium. Thus far, this was the weakest display of Bagan team this year out of the 5 matches they have played so far. Sunday scored the first goal for MSC while Lalampuia equalized in 2nd half but just seconds before final whistle Mohanraj scored an unfortunate own goal. Sporting, now on a dozen points from five games, were the better team, particularly in the opening session. Sporting, now on a dozen points from five games, were the better team, particularly in the opening session.

In the first half, Mohun Bagan did not play well enough and it was Sporting team all around. Mohammedan mainly attacked via Mariners’ right flank with Habibur displaying poor form. He was later substituted in 34th minute and Navin Kumar replaced him. In 21st minute, MSc scored their first goal when from a threw pass off Prashanta, their Liberian recruit Sunday scored in 21st minute via a penalty when Odafa brought him down via a badly timed tackle. Odafa scored from penalty though the penalty was quite a poor shot, Sangram could have done better. Bagan got two half chance in this half, once Barreto took a crispy left footer which was cleared by a Sporting defender and in another chance Lalkamal took a poor shot from edge of the box. Just before lemon break, Mohammedan Sporting got a very easy chance, the easiest chance of the match, Satyajit went past Sangram and his pass just could not reach Rajib, a lucky escape for Mariners.

However, in the 2nd half, Mohun Bagan played better football and attacked more. Bagan got quite a few chance and in 56th minute Barreto gave a gem of a pass to Tulunga who passed the ball to Lalampuia who just had to push the ball in an empty net making it 1-1. Barreto really played outstanding football especially in 2nd half and he was marshalling most of the moves. It was because of him that Bagan came back into the game. He played slightly deep in 2nd half and distributed the ball well to the side halfs so as to enable wing play. On 62nd minute, from a left footed Naveen Kumar center, Barreto headed beautifully but the ball was just saved by Naseem and prevented it from going in, a great effort from Barreto indeed.  Tapan Maity replaced Lalramlua in 67th minute. In 69th minute, off another Naveen Kumar center, this time a right footed one, the ball went straight to Lalampuia whose head hit post with goalkeeper beaten all ends up. He should have definitely done much better, it was a great center from Naveen Kumar. In 79th minute from a corner, Lalampuia got an easy ball in the box with only goalkeeper to beat but he took a lot of time to shoot and the ball was cleared by defender, a very costly miss by Lalam. Bagan were continuously attacking at this time but time and again failed to score due to easy misses. Just before end of match, Lalkamal missed the easiest chance for Bagan when he could not trap the ball off a Barreto pass inside box with only goalkeeper to beat. Mohammedan Sporting, however, gave the final blow to Bagan and had the last laugh With the match having rolled into added time, Sporting’s Bimal Pariyar followed the ball closely and entered the Bagan box, but Anand Vasan got to the ball before the Sporting player and passed on to Mohan Raj. The defender failed to keep his cool and put the ball home past Sangram, an extremely poor decision by Mohan Raj to pass the ball instead of clearing the ball for corner and Sangram is also to be partially blamed as he needlessly rushed out with two defenders already with the ball. A gifted goal by Bagan defenders to Sporting team.

For Mohun Bagan, Sangram was confident throughout the match but was partially to be blamed for both goals. He could have done much better to stop the poor penalty. In defence, Vashan is quiet slow and Kareem must be waiting for Manju and Deepak to return so as to replace him. Odafa otherwise played well but made few costly errors. Habibur was in bad form today and his replacement Naveen Kumar is very fast and his overlap is very good but his defensive quality needs to be improved. Mohanraj did not play up to his standard today. Midfield could not function well today especially James Singh and Lalkamal. With the amount of chance Lalkamal is getting, it is high time that he start performing and stop making silly errors. In I league, it will be beneficial for Mariners if they recruit the 3rd foreigner as a midfielder. Bagan now needs someone like Douglas who can lead the team from behind as with Barreto upfront, Bagan will create chances and score goals but the problem is with blocking and tackling in midfield, due to the lack of which the opponent teams are so easily reaching Bagan penalty box by playing 5-6 passes, this needs to be stopped as otherwise it creates huge pressure of defence. Lalramlua could not do much and his replacement Tapan Maity seemed to playing in the wrong side. As he do not have good left foot, he was seen running down the left flank and while taking the center, it was seen that he was trying to do it with right foot thus giving time to Sporting defenders to clear the ball.  Tulunga was far from best today. Barreto was outstanding as usual and he created panic in Sporting defence time and again but with missed chances from Lalampuia and Lalkamal, Bagan could not get any points from this match. Lalampuia though scored one easy goal but missed couple of easy goals. It is high time he also use his chance with players like Branco in reserve bench. Today Ishfaq was missed the most as his run down the left flank was missed mostly by Mariners.

After the match, Kareem blamed whole team for defeat and not just only Mohanraj for scoring the own goal. He gave credit to Theo and Okero for brilliant performance and told that draw would have been good result with Mohun Bagan playing well in 2nd half but unfortunately the 2nd goal changed things. He is however confident that in the next two matches team will play well and get full points. Mohanraj was extremely upset after scoring the sameside goal. He broke into tears and told that this is the first time he has scored in this manner and it will be like a nightmare to him.

Mohun Bagan is now placed in 2nd position with 10 points from 5 matches. They next play George Telegraph on August 2 at 3.30 pm in Mohun Bagan ground.

Meanwhile, tomorrow is Mohun Bagan day, 29th July. At 2 pm, Mohun Bagan junior players will participate in an exhibition match. Then there will be a match amongst veterans. The final match of the day will be between sports journalist team and actors of Tollywood. After the matches, the under-12 team which has just won the Yakult Danone Nations Cup in Delhi and the under-13 team which have won the nursery league will be felicitated followed by Baichung Bhutia for receiving Padma Shree. Baichung’s wife will be present to receive. Mohun Bagan Ratna will be given to M. A. Sattar.  Though not well but still Sattar will come to receive the award just because it will be given by his favorite club Mohun Bagan. In the musical program following the ceremony, Nachiketa and Mita Chatterjee will perform for the supporters and members. This will be followed by the dinner.

TEAM: Sangram, Habibur (Naveen Kumar 34), Odafa, Vashan, Mohanraj, Tulunga, Lalkamal, James Singh Sr., Lalramlua (Tapan Maity 67), Barreto, Lalampuia.

 

Team Mohunbagan is very much confident of getting 3 points from the first derby against Mohammedan Sporting. Mohun Bagan is now leading the Kolkata Premier League table with 10 points from 4 matches. Meanwhile, schedule dates of Mariners’ next two matches i.e. versus George and KEB has been changed. Mohun Bagan will play George Telegraph on July 2 and East Bengal on July 5 as per new schedule declared by IFA. There is a festive atmosphere in Mohun Bagan club because of the Annual Day, 29th July, just one day after the derby. Preparation is going on to make the day successful like every year but amidst the celebration, coach Kareem is very much serious of getting full 3 points and looked very focused in practice.

 There might be two changes in the first line up. Mohanraj will start in left back as Under-19. His inclusion will certainly be a big boost for Mariners. Sangram, Mohanraj, Odafe, Vasan, Habibur, James Sr., Lalramlua/James Jr., Lalkamal, Tulunga, Barreto, Lalampuia will likely be the first team for Bagan. Mohun Bagan will want to win the match and celebrate their Annual Day.

Coach Kareem is hopeful that team spirit of Mohun Bagan will get better of spirited Mohammedan who had already beaten East Bengal 3-1. Barreto is however a little cautious and is careful about the striker duo of Okero and Thio, though both of them are slighly injured and might not play full 90 minutes. The match will start at 4 pm.

It was alleged that Karim charged at the Linesman. Everybody saw Coach Karim Bencharifa charging down towards the Linesman with an open fist in the match against Port Trust on 22nd July when Barreto was ruled offside in the second half. Almost all media alleged that Karim was trying to force his decision upon the linesman and that he had instigated the crowd against the referee !!! Coach Karim Bencharifa himself explains what exactly had happened during that moment, and how grossly wrong the media men were ! Read along to know the full story !

Karim in an exclusive session with MBC.com says: " It was during the later part of the second half, when we were trying to press for the illusive goal; that Barreto, who was on the extreme left recieved a long ball from the right flank. Now the Linesman was standing just parallel to this line of incident and he immediately raised his flag as Barreto was slightly ahead of the 4 other Port Trust players singalling that Barreto was off-side. Now what he didnot notice was that  Satyajit Dutta – the Jersey No. 5 of Port Trust, who was playing as a Libero was right there before Barreto ! The linesman should have been parallel to this last line of defence ! And since he was not, he missed this fact and hence wrongly declared Barreto offside ! All TV replays confirmed this fact ! Seeing this, i rushed towards the Linesman shouting that No. 5 of Port Trust was ahead of Barreto and hence it was not an off-side ! I gesticulated the number 5 with the five fingers of my palm and hence everybody saw me running with an open fist ! How else do you expect a person to signal or gesture out the number 5 ? 

Never for once did i push the linesman nor did i try to bring his flag down!

Now the media, instead of asking me or the linesman Mr. Kashinath Sen about this incident, reported all fabricated stories about this incident blowing this whole thing out of proportion ! They even said that i tried to instigate the crowd !!! I know the rules of the game, and i know that instigating the crowd is a very violent thing to do ! Never did i do such thing, and i have my own reputation intact in this regard!

I would seriously expect that the media do realise what a strong impact (and sometimes a negative one) their reports have on the minds of football fans, and hence i would expect them to know the true story before reporting on such an incident. "
 

This graphic explains shows the schematic postioning of the Port Trust players and that of Barreto.. and especially the No.5 & the Linesman !

Now, the 15000 odd fans who were present at the Mohun Bagan saw the action and hence know what exactly had happened …. But the millions of fans across the globe, for whom the media reports are the sole source of news perhaps got a wrong image of the coach due to these reports in the media ….

We hope this report of ours does help in clearing the misconception…

Weak performance of midfield and appalling refereeing standard result in a goalless draw. Major part of the second half Port Trust players wasted time and referee however was only a spectacle and did not take any stern action against them. Gopal Das took almost 5 minutes to enter the ground when he was replacing injured Sibram Dey. Remember last year in I league, Shilton was injured and he was shown card for limping off the ground. If that is taken as the benchmark, then 3-4 Port players should have been shown the card. In one instance, linesman Kashinath Sen adjudged MB player offside whereas the player was completely onsite and Bagan could have got a chance to score from that attack.

However, Bagan midfield also displayed poor football today. Coach Kareem had James Singh in left half position but Ishfaq was missed very badly as his down the run the left flank often caused panic in opponent box as seen in last few matches. Junior James Singh was also far from  his best and often he mispassed, same can be said of Lalkamal. Last match’s hattrick scorer Tulunga also had a disappointing performance. Barreto tried his best as he came down to distribute the ball and delivered quite a few good centers which Lalampuia, Odafa missed.

Mohun Bagan dominated the match and came upon several scoring opportunities, the easiest being missed by Lalampuia off a Barreto flick inside the box. Lalampuia had open goal in front of him but could not connect the ball properly.  Within 5 minutes, Bagan missed two easy chances when Barreto’s shot was blocked by goalkeeper and Odafe shooting wide from a corner, he should have done better. From two corners, Odafa and Vasan head wide from very close range. Few minutes before half time, Barreto delivered a good center from right, however, no one was in position to connect the ball.

In 2nd half, Branco was brought in place of Lalampuia and Lalramlua replaced James. Branco tried his best but did not get much support. It would have been better if Lalampuia would have been kept in the forward along with Branco and Barreto playing from a little deep, so that he could have delivered his passes to the striking pair. Naveen Kumar played for last 10 minutes and made quite a few centers down the right flank, but unfortunately Mariners could not score. Port Trust hardly got any chance to score thanks to Man of the Match Odafe.

The quality of referring and match officiating was in question as they did not do enough to stop the time wasting tactics of Port Trust.  Mohun Bagan officials have asked for outstation referees to officiate Kolkata league matches.

One can recall that a city club, always alleged to have enjoyed CRA’s favour,  breached the U-19 rule this year by playing without U-19 for about 7 minutes but the referees couldn’t  (or didn’t) do much about it and IFA still have not taken any action against this.

Kareem at the end of the match told that “The fact that we managed to create so many chances proves that we didn’t play too badly. I have to think about the positives and I am more or less happy with performance today.”

TEAM: Sangram, Habibur, Odafe, Vasan, Suman Bose (Naveen Kumar 78th), Malsawntluanga, James Singh Sr. (Lalramluaha 46th), James Singh Jr., Lalkamal, Lalampuiya (Branco 59th), Jose Barreto.

PICTURE COURTESY: SANGBAD PRATIDIN, ACHINTYA ROY

Academy celebrates its birth day ! Mohun Bagan Sail football Academy celebrated its 6th annual day today with pomp and style. The two day football festival ended on a bright note, St. Xaviers winning in the cl. 2 and cl. 3 categories while St. Michaels won the cl. 4 one. The children were ecstatic to recieve the trophies, awards and the football as prizes ! The day also happens to be the birthday of our club gen. Secretary, and thus two huge cakes were cut to celebrate the day. One for the academy and one for Mr. Anjan Mitra.

Mohun Bagan defeats Railway FC by 3-0. Tulunga scoring hattrick. Bagan continued to display brilliant football like first two matches. This is their third successive 3-0 victory. Mohun Bagan continued its spectacular performance by defeating Railway FC 3-0, this is the third successive match in which Mariners have scored three goals, this time Malswamtluanga scoring hattrick. Mohun Bagan striker Lalampuia missed an easy opportunity off corner when he headed the ball out on 4 minutes from a handshaking distance. Railway FC made few attacks and took few shots but none of them could cause any problem to Sangram and Odafe was as usual rock solid in defence.

At 16 minutes, Barreto got a ball inside box and trapped it beautifully but due to uneven bounce he could not trap the ball properly or head it inside the goal, a valiant effort indeed from the man. In 37th minute, Tulunga scored the first goal when he trapped the ball beautifully inside box off a gem of a pass from Barreto and cool headedly finished by lobing the ball over onrushing goalkeeper. This was the result off a brilliant attack when James Jr. had passed the ball to Barreto. Within minutes, Tulunga doubled his account when off a Lalkamal Bhowmick corner, Odafa headed beautifully which went straight to Tulunga who just tapped the ball inside goal, a great opportunistic goal indeed.

Mariners started 2nd half with same pace as attacked with pace. In 51st minute, off a Ishfaq corner, Lalampuia missed an easy chance off James pass. On 60th minute, Tulunga attacked from right side and almost scored but his shot was well saved by Rail goalkeeper. Kareem then made two quick changes bringing in Henry in place of Lalampuia and Branco in place of Ishfaq. With inclusion of Branco, Mohun Bagan gained momentum and off his brilliant pass from left side in 82nd minute, Tulunga got the ball inside box, trapped beautifully and finished off a thumping right footer, indeed the best goal of the match. In 84th minute, Naveen Kumar came in place of Odafa who was a little injured and Kareem took no chance. Naveen Kumar went to right back position and Habibur went to stopper. In 90th minute, Barreto almost had passed to Tulunga who could have scored his fourth goal but the ball was well intercepted by defender.

For Mariners, Sangram was brilliant like last two matches and he is oozing with confidence. Such was his confidence level that once he collected a ball off a shot of a Railway FC player almost in the height of the post, which any goalkeeper would have fisted the ball for corner. In defence, Odafa displayed supreme form and hardly made any mistake. However, Vasan was slightly off color today and he made many mistakes today. Suman was quite good today but Habibur was a little shaky. In midfield, Ishfaq and Tulunga performed their job to perfection and attacked nicely via the flanks. Junior James was in first team today since James Sr. showed off form in last match. Junior James was okay but have to improve a lot. Same goes for Lalkamal. Railway FC was easily attacking and reaching Bagan box, the blocking and tackling will have to improve in Bagan medio. Barreto as usual showed his class by some brilliant passes to his team mates. Lalampuia missed few chances but otherwise was okay. Branco is doing very well as substitute. Overall team Mohun Bagan is playing brilliant football and has got 9 points from 3 matches. They will play their next match on 22nd against CalcuttaPort Trust.

Meanwhile, NIIT has become cosponsor of McDowell Mohun Bagan football club and they will give 18 lakh for this KPL. MB players will use their logo in their sleeves and shorts.

TEAM: Sangram, Suman, Vashan, Odafa (Naveen Kumar 84), Habibur, Tulunga, James Singh Jr., Lalkamal, Ishfaq (Branco 75), Barreto, Lalampuia (Henry 69)

NIIT has been named as new co-sponsor for Mohun Bagan This sponsorship is limited to the Sahara Calcutta Football League’2008 matches only and is worth of Rs.18Lacs. Mohunbagan officials and NIIT Authority all of them are quite eager to continue a long term relationship with each other. MB players will use their logo in their sleeves and shorts.

In a press meet today at Kolkata, Mr. Surajit Biswas of NIIT has offered every player from Sahara CFL-2008 for a free 12hours Computer Course in their Institute absolutely free. But all the players have to go through Mohunbagan’s reference. Mr. Biswas also told that "in IT-Training, Software we are the big name so we want to merge with another name which is really a big name. That is why Mohunbagan is with us today, because Mohunbagan is a giant of Indian football also."

Mr. Anjan Mitra, Hony. General Secretary of Mohunbagan A.C. told today, "every footballer has to know about computer, internet etc beside playing football. This is the first effort from us for that cause."

Barreto hattrick helped Mariners win the 2nd match of Sahara CFL-2008 Bagan win the match 3-1 against Chirag United today. In a match where the rain god and bad light almost threatened to play spoil sport, and the new Bagan squad was looking a tad out of touch, the ever dependable Barreto rose to the occassion and netted thrice with lethal precision. Overall Mohun Bagan did not play good football like first game but Barreto magic ensured 3 points. From the start of the match, Mohun Bagan midfield was under pressure and Barreto and Lalam were not getting much help from them and thus very little chance was created. In fact, Chirag took charge of early proceeding and looked better at this time with Sankar and Gouranga playing good football.

For Bagan, Odafa was rock solid in defence with support from Vashan. Ishfaq was trying hard in left flank. In 26th minute, Barreto scored his first goal with ease after he gave a ball to Ishfaq on left who centered the ball back and Barreto pushed it in with ease past the Chirag custodian. Arindam could not react, such was the placement. Just after the goal, Maxi missed an easy goal for Chirag from a Gourango pass.

In 2nd half, Bagan looked solid and Barreto scored his 2nd goal in 52nd minute via a Ishfaq cross which he headed home to perfection, a trademark striker goal. Within 8 minutes, Barreto completed his hattrick, this time also Ishfaq provided the ball and Barreto hold the ball in the box and shoot home with a left footed grounder with goalkeeper beaten all ends up. Achinta Saha scored a late goal for Chirag due to defensive lapse after Sangram had made a valiant save from a cross from the left side. There was heavy downpour towards the end of the match and Chirag appealed for bad light and wasted 5 minutes. However, the conditions improved with better visibility and the rain subsiding and the match, was completed without any further incidents except a pulled muscle of Habibur and a nasty tackle on Branco, which the referee, oddly, overlooked.

After the match, when Kareem was asked about Barreto, he promptly answered, "You guys keep on asking about Barreto’s form and the man has answered time again all your queries on the field."

In half time, Mohun Bagan under-12 players who won the Indian leg of Yakult Danone Nations Cup in Delhi on Saturday, did a lap of honour at the club ground. They will be honored on MB day on 29th July. The team will represent India in Nations Cup finals in Paris from September 4 to 7.

 TEAM: Sangram, Habibur Rahman, Peter Odafe, Anand Vasin, Rahul Kumar, Sanjoy Boro (Lal Ram Luaha 65), Lalkamal, L. James Singh (S. James Singh 61), Ishfaq, PC Lalampuiya (Branco 77), Jose Barreto

Yellow Cards: Lalkamal, Ishfaq, Lal Ram Luaha

Goals: Barreto (26, 52, 60)

 Pic Courtesy: Achintya Roy

Global Glory for Baichung ! Baichung Bhutia – the Mohun Bagan Captain netted in two goals, one in each half in the Goal4Africa project Kick off match. The match saw ensemble of stars from across the world at the Allianz Arena – Munich, Germany. Stars like Clarence Seedorf, Michael Ballack, Gattuso, Dida, Michael Shumacher, Edmilson and many more graced the occassion today. Baichung’s team, led by the Dutch International & AC Milan star Clarence seedorf lost out 6-9 to their opponents led by German Captain Michael Ballack. Baichung scored the first goal after deftly receiving the ball off his chest and thumping his left footer in driving the world famous DIDA onto the wrong side! The second goal was off an accurate Seedorf pass.

Goal4Africa.org WORLD TEAM 1 (This players list is preliminary and subject to change)
Chelsea	BALLACK, Michael
AC Milan	GATTUSO, Gennaro Ivan
AC Milan	KAKA, Ricardo
AC Milan	NESTA, Alessandro
AC Milan	PIRLO, Andrea
Arsenal	VAN PERSIE, Robin
Chelsea	TERRY, John
Chelsea	SHEVCHENKO, Andrea
Juventus FC	BUFFON, Gianluigi
Liverpool	GERRARD, Steven
Real Madrid	CANNAVARO, Fabio
Real Madrid	RAMOS, Sergio
Real Madrid	VAN NISTELROOY, Ruud
Bayern Munich	VAN BOMMEL, Mark
Mohun Bagan AC	BHUTIA, Baichung
Werder Bremen	DIEGO, Ribas
Fenerbahçe	Roberto Carlos
AS Roma	Cicinho
Villa Real	Edmilson
Atletico PR	Paulo Rink
Lyon	JUNINHO
Bayern Munich	PODOLSKI, Lukas
Barcelona FC	MESSI, Leonel
Barcelona FC	MARQUEZ, Rafa
Inter FC	CORDOBA, Ivan
Benfica	RUI COSTA, Manuel
Hannover	ENKE, Robert
Bayern Munich	BUTT, Hans Jorg
AC Milan	MALDINI, Paolo
CELEBRITY	SCHUMACHER, Michael
CELEBRITY	RAMAZOTTI, Eros

WORLD TEAM 2 (This players list is preliminary and subject to change)
AC Milan	DIDA, Nelson
Lille	SYLVA, Tony
AC Milan	SEEDORF, Clarence
Barcelona FC	ETO’O, Samuel
Arsenal	ADEBAYOR Emmanuel
Blackburn	MC CARTHY, Benedict
Blackburn	SAMBA, Christopher
Chelsea	DROGBA, Didier
Chelsea	ESSIEN, Michael
FC Bayern Munich	ZE ROBERTO
Marsiglia	ZUBAR, Ronald
Kaizer Chiefs	BARTLETT, Shaun
Kaizer Chiefs	MOTAUNG, Kaizer Jr.
Weder Breman	NALDO
South Africa	RADEBE, Lucas
Blackburn	MOKOENA, Aaron
Hamburger SV	DE JONG, Nigel
Everton FC	PINEAAR, Steven
Borussia Dortmund	BUCKLEY, Delron
Juventus FC	SISSOKO, Mohamed
AC Milan	RONALDO