Dates of few matches of Mohun Bagan in I league has been rescheduled due to their AFC Cup matches.

According to new schedule, Mohun Bagan matches are as follows:

1. Air India 1st feb (away)
2. Sporting Clube de Goa 6th feb (home)
3. Mohammedan Sporting15th feb
4. East Bengal 22nd feb

5. Dempo (home) This match has been rescheduled to March 2nd

6. Churchill (away) This match has been rescheduled to March 7th

7. Al Karama, Syria (away) 10th march

There is a high possibility that Dempo and Churchill match dates will be changed again due to AFC Cup match on March 10th and they might be rescheduled to February 28th-March 1/March 4-March 5.

8. Al Wihdat, Jordan (home) 17th march
9. Chirag 23rd march
10. JCT 28th march (away) (this has been has been changed from March 14th due to Mohun Bagan’s AFC cup matches on March 10th and March 17th)
11. Vasco (home) 2nd april
12. Al Kuwait (home) 7th april
13. Mahindra (away) 12th april.

14. Al Kuwait, Kuwait (away) 21st april
15. Al Karama, Syria (home) 5th may
16. Al Wihdat, Jordan (away) 19th may

 

Mohun Bagan team will fly off to Mumbai tomorrow in the evening after having a practice session in the morning.Rakesh Masih is back in the team after serving suspension and having missed the last match against Mumbai FC. Lalkamal and Mohanraj has been left out of the team due to minor injury. Rino Anto has replaced Mohanraj. The 18-member team consists of: Sangram, Shilton, Deepak, Habibur, Rino Anto, Rahul Kumar, Odafe, Manju, Rakesh Masih, Tulunga, Jr. James, Sr. James, Ishfaq, Marcos, Lalramluah, Barreto, Baichung and Lalampuia.

Cooperage, Mumbai: Guilty of some misses and miss passes in the first half , Jose Barreto did exactly what he does well – scored a goal and helped Baichung score another one. Baichung, nursing injuries, was brilliant in converting a James Singh cross into a goal and was going down to help the midfield as and when required. Couple of his deadly passes for Ishfaq could have been lethal as well.

Bagan’s exubarent balanced side, with Masih sitting out, were under firm pressure in the iLeague’s mid-day kick-off against Mumbai FC, but a superb attack-minded performance proved to churn out a wonderful result for Bencharifa and his men after stemming Mumbai FC’s wealth of attacking talent.

Bagan were the better team to start with as the Yellow brigade, who won 2-1 in the first leg,  looked nervous in the initial stages. But Barreto, Baichung, Ishfaq, Marcos, Manju, Odafe, Lalkamal shots either went just wide or were defended well by Mumbai FC defenders. Mumbai FC fielded goalkeeper Amit played well to make sure Bagan doen’t get an early lead in the match.

Mohun Bagan could have gone ahead within 2 minutes when from Ishfaq’s right footed center from left side Baichung could not head the ball properly. Within 5 minutes, Marcos’ free kick found Barreto’s head who misheaded the ball and Baichung tried a bicycle kick which went straight to goalkeeper. Mumbai FC then got two corners but in both cases Sangram averted danger by punching the ball out of danger. In 13th minute, again Marcos took a floating free kick from midfield which goalkeeper missed flight and Ishfaq took a shot which deflected off defender for a corner. In 17th minute, Lalkamal took a corner which went over goalkeeper to Odafe who instead of heading directly towards goal tried to give a pass to Manju but Mumbai FC defenders cleared the ball for safety. In 27th minute, Habibur missed an easy chance when Baichung gave a pass in open towards Habibur who ran with the ball but shot wide from close distance. In 38th minute, due to a mistake by James, Subhash Chakraborty got a loose ball in left flank and crossed the ball towards Hammond whose side volley went straight to Sangram. In first half, Mariners mainly relied on long balls for their attack.

                                     

After lemon break, Kareem changed the style of play and instructed his boys to play the ball more along the ground. Mumbai FC though started the half positively when in 50th minute, Felix took a shot from right which was saved by Sangram diving to the left. In 57th minute, Ishfaq got the ball past Sanjay Parte and passed the ball to Barreto, Barreto took a shot from outside the box but Amit was alert. Few minutes later, Marcos took a direct free kick which curled and just went away from far post. In 73rd minute, Mohun Bagan went ahead by a brilliant Baichung goal. Barreto got a ball in right flank and he gave a pass towards James Singh from whose center Baichung took a side volley which went into goal with Amit having no chance whatsoever. This is one of the best goals of this year’s I league. In 81st minute, Marcos snatched a ball from MFC player, lobbed the ball over his head and then gave a brilliant through pass towards Barreto who made a solo run from center circle and pushed the ball inside goal past goalkeeper making it 2-0. Kareem then made two changes in quick succession bringing on Lalampuia and Tulunga in place of Baichung and James respectively. In 90th minute, Lalampuia scored the 3rd goal for Mariners. Marcos again gave a nice forward pass towards Lalampuia and the latter’s first touch was brilliant as he took the ball inside box and placed the ball past goalkeeper making it 3-0 in favor of Mohun Bagan. Mohun Bagan now has 24 points from 12 matches. They next play against Air India on February 1.

                  

PICTURE COURTESY: TIMES OF INDIA

After the match Kareem said, "I am very pleased with the result. I have equaled my personal record of seven straight wins which was back in 2001 in Malta. I have never repeated that record and now I am looking for an eighth win." Bencherifa had high words of praise for his striking trio of Bhaichung, Jose Barreto and Lalwampuia. "All the three strikers scored including Lalwampuia, who wasn’t in the best fitness level after the break. He has lost around 5 kg in the last three weeks." The coach also mentioned that it is difficult for visiting teams to create many chances at Cooperage Stadium. "No team coming to Cooperage can create many chances. You must know how to capitalize on your chances which we did." Baichung said, "This is one of the best goals of my career." Baichung even gave his prize money to coach Kareem but Kareem gave it back to him saying that Baichung deserves it. Barreto said, "We did not play to our expectation in first half, coach asked us not to play long balls in half time and we changed our game plan and this worked in 2nd half."

Team : Sangram, Habibur, Odafe, Manju, Deepak, James (Tulunga), Lalkamal, Marcos, Ishfaq, Baichung (Lalampuia), Barreto (Lalramluaha)

 

Mohun Bagan has been placed in Group D, along with Syria’s Al Karama, who were the AFC Champions League runners-up in 2006 and another former ACL side Kuwait SC of Kuwait, and Jordan’s Al Wihdat. The group stage kicks off on March 10 and culminates on May 19. The Round of 16 will be played on May 26 for the teams from the West, while the teams from the East will clash on June 23. The two-legged quarter-finals take place on September 15 and September 30. The semi-finals will be held on October 15 and 21, followed by the finals on October 27 and November 3.

Following are the schedules of Mohun Bagan matches:

10th March> Al Karama, Syria (Away)
17th March> Al Wihdat, Jordan (Home)
7th April> Kuwait SC (Home)
21st April> Kuwait SC (Away)
5th May> Al Karama, Syria (Home)
19th May> Al Wihdat, Jordan (Away)

Mohun Bagan will play its home matches in Howrah Stadium

www.mohunbaganclub.com donated Rs. 74,600 to the bereaved family of Sanjib Jana. As you know, he died after he fell down from middle tier of Salt Lake Stadium before the start of Federation Cup final of 2008.

 

 www.mohunbaganclub.com donated Rs. 74,600 to  the bereaved family of Sanjib Jana. As you know, he died after he fell down from middle tier of Salt Lake Stadium before the start of Federation Cup final of 2008. The amount was distributed equally among the family members of Sanjib Jana during an occasion held at Jadavpur University. Our member Mr. Haridas Ghosh gave the cheque of Rs. 37300 to Chuni Jana, mother of late Sanjib Jana and Mr. Subir Mukherjee gave the cheque of Rs. 37300 to Sunita Jana, wife of late Sanjib Jana. We collected funds from members of the yahoo group http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/mohunbaganclub. MB supporters from all over the world came forward and lend their helping hand towards us.

We would like to extend our thanks to all members of the Mohun Bagan family who extended their hand of help.

The amount of Rs. 74,600/- may not be very substantial to help the family’s cause, what is important is that all of us joined together and ensured that we contribute in our small way and stand beside this bereaved family in the hour of their need.  A special word of praise and gratitude for our football coach, Mr. Karim Bencherifa who also participated in this noble cause by personally contacting us.  It shows that he is not only a good football coach but also a good human being.

 

 

 

 

The persons who have contributed are:

Kareem Bencherifa (coach, Mohun Bagan Athletic Club)
Dr. Rajshankar Ghosh
Haridas Ghosh
Krishna Ghosh
Subir Mukherjee
Somnath Atta
Sankar Chatterjee
Sidhartha Dey
Devadeep Ghosh
Tridip Sheet
Shiladitya Mitra
Arabinda Bhar
Rajat Subhra Banerjee
Anirudha Mitra
Pratik Mitra
Kaushik Dutta
Arindam Das (collected from his colleagues and friends)
Somak Ghosh
Gourab Goswami (collected from his colleagues and friends)
Debayan Mitra
Sumit Roy
Soumyadeb Sinha
Amitabha Banerjee
Shayan Bhattacharya (along with his father and brother)
Debabrata Chatterjee
Rana Bose
Kallol Kolay
Sudhashil Ghosh
Arnab Dey
Goutam Das
Ramprasad Mitra
Pradip Mukherjee
Samar Roy
Sourav Roy Chowdhury
Srijan
Tathagata Roy
Subrata Kundu
Sabyasachi
Abhik Ray
Nirmalya Maity
Sumit Ghosh
Suman
Joydip
Arindam Roy
Arunabha
Somnath
Arijit Basu
Sambuddha and Sandipan
Apurba Sarkar
Pinaki Bag
Dibyendu Chatterjee
Sobhanmoy Chowdhury,Ananta Ray  & Pavan EVSR
Debraj Chakraborty
Supratim
Somnath Mitra

 

Thanks to Valerian Soccer Foundation for giving us the platform. Valerian Soccer Foundation also donated Rs. 5000, Rs. 2500 each to late Sanjib Jana’s mother and wife.

Meanwhile, Valerian Soccer Foundation launched their bi-lingual Journal “90 Minutes” on different aspects of soccer today in Jadavpur University’s Anita Banerjee Memorial Hall.  Kshiti Goswami(Minister In charge,PWD & Roads,Govt.of West Bengal),Abani Roy (MP,Rajya Sabha),Subrata Dutta(Vice-President,AIFF & IFA), Dr. Shaji Prabhakaran (Director,Vision India & In- charge National Teams,Grass roots,Youth,All India Football Federation),G.C.Das (Football Historian),Debasish Dutta ( Eminent Sports Journalist),Kalyan Majumdar(General Secretary, East Bengal) and Novy Kapadia,renowned football commentator & journalist were also present in this ocassion.  

Thanks to Mr. Angshuman Roy for writing a special article on our effort, for details read http://epaper.timesofindia.com//? and also to other print and electronic media who have highlighted the event.

 

To join our forum, http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/mohunbaganclub

 

 

 

 

MBC.com wishes the football fraternity a very Happy & Prosperous New 2009 ! MBC.com wishes all its visitors and the football fraternity a very happy and prosperous new year. May the year 2009 brings lots of joy and success in all our lives !