Bagan looses yet another final to Churchill Brothers. Mohun Bagan looses the 2nd Final of the year, the 114th Durand Cup also goes to Goa. The Mariners drew first blood in the 95th minute. A swerving freekick by Subhojit was headed home by Eddeh Chiddi.

From the beginning Churchill was dominating, whereas Bagan midfield failed to make any impact on the game. Their supply to the forward line was erratic and infrequent. This resulted in immense, pressure on Bagan defence, but they held out and Dipak led from the back and it must also be mentioned here that the Captain Sangram also led by example as he kept all Churchill attack out. Between that there were some counter attacks of Bagan but all were fruitless.

In the 11th minute of the match Odafa created a panic in Mariners defense while Masih cleared the ball. Snehasis saved a sure goal from goal line which was headed in by Kalu from 2nd corner in 38th minute.  Dipak in Mohun Bagan defense has shown some kind of solidarity, while Barreto in forward line was totally off-colour, it was evident that Barreto is not yet fully fit. In the 2nd half both teams got some chances to score but none got success.

 After end of regulation 90 minutes in Extra time Chiddi opened the account for Bagan at 95th minute of the match. The inswinging floater taken by Subhojit Majumder from direct free kick found Chiddi’s head and Chiddi made no mistake at all.

 The next 10 minutes saw a flurry of activity from Churchill, resulting in a brace from Odafa. That itself put the Mariners in a big enough hole. The situation was further aggravated by the fact that the central midfield position was not well controlled by them. Mickey was looking like a boy in the woods in his role of an attacking midfielder, while Kuluthungan was an abject failure in the role of a holding medio, he was out dribbled, out run and out smarted everytime.

 However, Karim saw it fit to persist with him, and instead took off Mohanraj to insert Branco. This given the fact that we were playing against the most lethal striker playing in India, the inevitable happened a few minutes later and the match was sealed by Odafa in the 109th minute with his hattrick. It is difficult to figure out the reason of persisting with Kulu especially when he wasn’t able to achieve much.

 It may also be said here that this midfield cannot hold out much hope for us in the oncoming I-League. This is the umpteenth time this year when we had taken the lead only to concede the match, a perfect example of flattering to deceive. Are we bringing the I-League home?

Teams:

Churchill Brothers SC
29-Arindam Bhattacharya, 8-Thokchom Naoba Singh (84′ 6-Sudhakaran Naveen Kumar), 4-Rowilson Rodrigues, 19-Gouramangi Moirangthem Singh, 17-Robert Lalthalma, 27-Charan Rai, 15-Nacimento Silveira (90′ 24-Lenny Rodrigues), 9-Ogba Kalu Nnanna, 11-Khanthang Paite (82′ 22-Jaison Vales), 10-Odafe Onyeka Okolie [C], 12-Reisangmei Vashum

Unused Substitutes:
31-Lalit Thapa, 5-L. Dhanachandra Singh, 30-Yumnam Jugeshor Singh, 37-Ashley Fernandes

Mohun Bagan AC
1-Sangram Mukherjee [C], 13-Irungbam Surkumar Singh, 4-Deepak Kumar Mondal, 20-Rakesh Masih, 27-Nallappan Mohanraj (106′ 12-Branco Vincent Cardozo), 16-James Lukram Singh (85′ 32-Subhodeep Majumdar), 26-Micky Fernandes, 17-Kalia Perumal Kulothungan, 25-Snehashis Chakraborty (67′ 7-Santha Kumar), 10-Jose Marcio Ramirez Barreto, 9-Chidi Edeh

Unused Substitutes:
31-Shilton Pal, 8-Subho Kumar, 19-Mashangva Genius Zenith, 28-Manish Mathani, 34-Sangram Mandi

Yellow Cards: Nacimento Silveira (42′, Churchill Brothers SC); Micky Fernandes (2′, Mohun Bagan AC)

Referee: P.K. Bose (Madhya Pradesh)

 

Mohun Bagan produced a scintillating display, sweeping Mahindra United off the pitch, reassuring them a place in the back to back final in the season. Should it be a repeat of IFA Shield final or a Trophy winning final against Churchill Brothers will be determined on Tuesday, September 22. Karim Bencharifa’s side were well on top after taking the lead through Chiddi Edeh’s superb strike in the first half. But Mahindra United were handed a lifeline soon after half-time when Bagan needlessly conceded a goal that Md. Rafi converted.

 It got worse for Mahindra as Chiddi headed a James Singh corner-kick into Mahindra net eight minutes later to give Mohun Bagan their third win in a row.

Both the teams played open football today, created lots of opportunities and both the goalkeepers saved some brilliant shots. For Mahindra, it was Stephen Dias who was taking all the loads, while Jems Singh was at his best today. Each and every Jems shot found Jose Barreto, excepting for twice – first when his corner found Chiddi and then a direct freekick was saved by Subhasish.

Bagan will now play Churchill Borthers – second time in the season. Last time they played, Bagan went down 0-2. Bagan supporters surely hope that the elite Durand Trophy will now arrive at the club tent this year.

 

Teams:

Mohun Bagan AC

1-Sangram Mukherjee [C], 13-Irungbam Surkumar Singh, 4-Deepak Kumar Mondal, 20-Rakesh Masih, 27-Nallappan Mohanraj, 16-James Lukram Singh (90+4′ 19-Mashangva Genius Zenith), 26-Micky Fernandes, 8-Subho Kumar, 25-Snehashis Chakraborty (82′ 7-Santha Kumar), 10-Jose Marcio Ramirez Barreto (90+4′ 17Kulothungan), 9-Chidi Edeh

Unused Substitutes:

31-Shilton Pal, 12-Branco Vincent Cardozo, 28-Manish Mathani, 34-Sangram Mandi

Mahindra United

1-Subhashish Roy Chowdhury, 12-Denzil Franco, 14-Dharmaraj Ravanan, 6-Lamine Tamba, 25-Debabrata Roy, 23-Steven Benedic Dias, 2-Nadumparambil Pappachan Pradeep [C] (61′ 10-Svetozmar Mijin), 7-Sushanth Mathew, 20-Paresh Shivalkar (66′ 4-Krishnan Nair Ajayan), 28-Sushil Kumar Singh (82′ 15- Khangembam Thoi Singh), 11-Madambillath Mohammed Rafi

Unused Substitutes:

22-Subhodeep Mukherjee, 8-Bhola Prasad, 9-Surajit Bose,  18-Nisthar Kazih Alaudeen

IFA Shied runners Mohun Bagan will face the Mahindra United at Ambedkar Stadium on Sunday evening in the 114th Durand Cup Semifinal. Mohun Bagan will be looking to build on their unconvincing victory against ONGC and JCT successively in group matches at Ambedkar Stadium on Sunday, and will be hoping that the side begins to click in the traditional Mohun Bagan fashion to chalk up their name in the Final to play against Churchill Brothers. Churchill defeated Dempo by 2-1 in the first semi final on Saturday evening.

Mahindra United on the other hand will be looking to take revenge of the IFA Shield where they drew with the mariners and get out of IFA Shield after displayed some good football in second half. Here in Durand Cup they have beaten another Kolkata outfit Kingfisher East Bengal and earlier drawn with new club in Indian Football Lyajon FC, Shillong in the group matches.

The talismanic striker of  Bagan Jose Ramirez Barreto was injured during the last group match against JCT and replced by Branco after his double strike on the early minutes of the match. It is the main concern for the Coach Kareem Bencherifa to make the Brazilian 100 % fit as early as possible. Another foreigner Chiddi has also shown his form by scoring goals in important moment. Mohun Bagan defence has shown great solidarity under veteran Dipak Mondal, who himself declared that he is in the form of his life. Late recruit right back Surkumar Singh has shown some goal scoring ability as well. However, it has been seen absence of Marcos make the mariners’ mid-field little weaker, whereas the others are not in their best of form. But against the team like Mahindra they have to perform at their best to help their team to reach to the final. Goalkeeper Sangram Mukherjee also is in the good form and as the captain of the team, he is leading from the front.

So there will be a interesting game of football between the two giants of Kolkata and Mumbai on 20th September, Sunday evening at Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi. Match will be on and from 5.30pm (IST). The live update will be available on mohunbaganclub.com

Probable Line-Up for Mohun Bagan AC:

Sangram, Mohanraj, Masih, Deepak, Surkumar, Snehasish, Kulothungan, Mickey, James, Chiddi, Barreto  

 

 

 

Mohun Bagan defeated JCT 2 – 0 today at Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi in a group-B match and marched into the Semifinal of the 114th Durand Cup, where they will meet Mahindra United on Sunday 20th September.

It was enough a draw for Bagan to book the semi final berth, but the double strike of the talismanic Jose Ramirez Barreto brought sweet victory against JCT and a semifinal berth against Mahindra United. On the 3rd and 13th minute of the match Barreto scored for Bagan, first one from a James center by a header like bullet. James a missed a scoring opportunity on 38th minute by wasting a penalty. on 21st minute of the match Barreto was replaced by Branco due to injury, but the injury seems to be minor one.

It is not easy for any team to play against JCT at Ambedkar, but Bagan players seem to be cool customer as their defence played well, specially in 2nd half, when the Punjab team went all out to score. Goal Keeper Sangram Mukherjee also made some good saves to help his team reach the semi final without any hiccups. The overall game of the Mariners exuded quality and professionalism that is rarely visible in Indian football.

Booking Status:Surkumar Singh (19′), Santha Kumar (90’+2′ ) (Mohun Bagan); Baljit Singh Sahni (30′, JCT)

 

Teams:

Mohun Bagan AC
1-Sangram Mukherjee [C], 13-Irungbam Surkumar Singh, 4-Deepak Kumar Mondal, 20-Rakesh Masih, 27-Nallappan Mohanraj, 16-James Lukram Singh, 26-Micky Fernandes, 17-Kalia Perumal Kulothungan (69′ 8-Subho Kumar), 25-Snehashis Chakraborty (73′ 7-Santha Kumar), 10-Jose Marcio Ramirez Barreto (21′ 12-Branco Vincent Cardozo), 9-Chidi Edeh

Unused Substitutes
31-Shilton Pal, 19-Mashangva Genius Zenith, 32-Subhajit Majumdar 34-Sangram Mandi

JCT
1-Karanjit Singh [C], 2-Jaspal Singh, 24-Gurwinder Singh, 30-Sarbjeet Singh, 12-Daljit Singh; 7-Jagpreet Singh (78′ 13-Baldeep Singh Sr), 10-Penn Ikechukwu Orji, 27-Baldeep Singh Jr, 25-Sakatar Singh (74′ 14-Lalchhuanmawia), 9-Balwant Singh, 6-Baljit Singh Sahni (71′ 21-Balraj Singh)

Unused Substitutes
31-Prasanta Dora, 5-Narinder Singh, 19-Randeep Singh, 22-Pawan Kumar

Referee: P.K. Bose (Madhya Pradesh)

Bagan won by 5-1 against ONGC in their opening match in Durand Cup. It is one of Chief Coach Karim Bencharifa’s favourite mantras: if you lose, it’s how you react that counts. What happened at IFA Shield final last week must have made Kareem and his boys’ teeth hurt, but it is difficult to imagine how Mohun Bagan’s response could have been more satisfying. Chiddi Edeh, who missed the IFA Shield final, soothed his nerves with two confidence-building goals. Ditto Surkumar Singh. Barreto’s goal made this Bagan’s biggest win of the season.

 The most gratifying part for Kareem, however, was that the two players who were missed in the Shield final scored – though, Barreto missed a penalty.Chiddi had been desperately looking for the goals right from the word GO. Surkumar, too, should feel a lot better after hooking in two goals that had Bagan’s supporters loudly singing his name rather than arguing among themselves about whether he is a right back or a forward!  When Barreto played with Chiddi to fire in Bagan’s third goal it was only the first time Chiddi had set Barreto up to score since they became team-mates. Barreto, in turn, has created only one for Chiddi. How this partnership is going to develop over the next few months, Kareem is acutely aware, will be pivotal to Bagan’s aspirations of keeping the Federation Cup and winning the i-League trophy. Mohun Bagan, now need just a draw against JCT in their next match on Friday to make it to the semi-final.

Surkumar Singh (9’  and 90+2) and Nigerian Chidi Edeh (16th and 77th) scored two goal each while Jose Barretto (43rd) scored once for Mohun Bagan, Babatunde socred the solitory goal for ONGC in the 82nd minuteof the match.




Surkumar Singh played at times was becoming a  libero in the first half of the match, instead of his usual right back position. That was the successful experiement of Coach Bencherifa.























The member of the National squad played an outstanding game in the first half to take the full control of the match, though in second half he has played in his normal right back position. 
































Surkumar scored the first goal for Mohun Bagan. Seven minutes later, ONGC made a mistake for holding the ball inside their box for too long as Chiddi made no mistake to score his first of the match and 2nd for his team. On 43rd minutes before the lemon break, in his first mach Barretto scored by a right footer of  a deflection from ONGC defender CS Saleel.
Chidi scored his double as he turned in a low right footer past the ONGC goalkeeper in the 77th minute, Surkumar completed the scorline 5-1 by firing in a 35-yard long ranger in the injury time.

Teams:
Mohun Bagan AC
1-Sangram Mukherjee, 13-Irungbam Surkumar Singh, 4-Deepak Kumar Mondal [C], 20-Rakesh Masih, 27-Nallappan Mohanraj, 16-James Lukram Singh (72′ 32-Subhajit Majumdar), 26-Micky Fernandes, 17-Kalia Perumal Kulothungan (84′ 8-Subho Kumar), 25-Snehashis Chakraborty (65′ 7-Santha Kumar), 10-Jose Marcio Ramirez Barreto, 9-Chidi Edeh

Unused Substitutes
31-Shilton Pal, 19-Mashangva Genius Zenith, 12-Branco Vincent Cardozo, 34-Sangram Mandi

ONGC, Mumbai
30-Bilifang Narzary [C], 22-K.V. Lalu, 6-Udofia Chiukwama, 3-Kamal Thapa, 16-Shahbaz Shaleel, 18-L. Lalmuanpuia (60′ 17-Phool Chand Hembram), 11-Sandip Sanga, 14-Kaushik Bose, 28-A.Naresh, 10-Badmus Baba Thunde, 12-Jonathan Lalsangzuala (72′ 27-Kenistan C.)

Unused Substitutes
1-Prasanjit Ghosh, 5-Gour Naskar, 25-Dharmesh Patel, 8-Somy P.T, 19-M.C. Dhanesh

Referee: A. Rowan (Services)

 

Kolkata giant Mohun Bagan will appear in Durand Cup after a gap of two years as the qualifiers for the more-than-a-century-old football tournament starting from September 2 at the Ambedkar Stadium. The main round of the tournament, which starts from September 11, will see participation of nine I-League sides. Besides Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Dempo, Churchill Brothers, Sporting Clube-De-Goa, Mahindra United, JCT, Air India and Shillong Lajong. Army XI is the tenth team directly seeded into the quarter-final round. The 122nd edition of the tournament, the third oldest in the world and oldest in Asia, will be conducted in two stages — qualifying knock out and quarterfinal league rounds.

Meanwhile Mohun Bagan team arrived Delhi by Rajdhani Express on Monday morning. Barreto and Chiddi will play together for the very first time. The striking force was the main concern for Mariners in IFA Shield. So it will be a big boost when the two foreigner will play together for Bagan. Branco is also in the team. Sk Azim & Isfaq Ahmed will miss the tournament due to their injury.  

Bagan is in the group B of the tournament along with JCT and ONGC. Bagan will meet ONGC in their first match on 16th September. JCT already defeated ONGC and got two valuable points. So the matches of Bagan against both the teams are crucial to reach to the Semi-Final.

 

Mohun Bagan wins against Chirag United 5-4 in tie-breakers and moves into the finals of 114th IFA Shield. Mohun Bagan will now face Churchill Brothers.

Mariners showed nerves of steel even after being reduced to 10 men from the ninth minute onwards to edge out Chirag United SC 5-4 in penalty shootout and set up a summit clash against Churchill Brothers in the 114th IFA Shield, on Wednesday. Mohun Bagan was reduced to 10 men after Chiddi Edeh got a marching order.Bagan players were not happy with the referee’s decision. 

The newly-laid artificial turf at Yuba Bharati Krirangan in Salt Lake saw the second semifinal being decided through tie-breaker as both the sides failed to score in regulation period and extra time.
Substitute keeper Sangram Mukherjee gave Mohun Bagan a flying start in the tie-breaker by saving Jayanta Sen’s shot from the spot.

All the five Mohun Bagan penalty takers — Marcos Pereira, Rakesh Masih, Snehashis Chakraborty, Surkumar Singh and James Singh — then found the target to send the Green-and-Maroons to the final.

Earlier, Mohun Bagan’s starting goalkeeper Shilton Paul did all the hard work thwarting all Chirag efforts for 120 minutes but Sangram emerged the hero with his anticipation diving to the right to deny Jayanta in the penalty shootout. Dipak Mondal was another player for mariners who was too brilliant at his performance.

Jayanta’s miss proved costly for Chirag United though PC Lalawmpuia, Edu, Lal Kamal Bhowmick and Subhashish Roy Chowdhury found the net from the spot.

 But in the final there will only one foreigner for mariners as Chiddi will not be able to play for showing red card in today’s match. This is the most concerned area for the coach Kareem Bencherifa as Chiddi was the only positive striker remains in the squad after injury of Suraj Mondal.

Teams:

Mohun Bagan : Shilton(Sangram 120'), Surkumar , Masih, Dipak , Mohanraj(Biswajit 106'), James (Santa Kumar), Marcos , Micky , Kulothungam, Chiddi, Snehasis

Chirag United : Sandip, Safar, Dulal (Subhasish Roy Chowdhury), Manas, Du, Gourangs Biswas, Lalkamal, Jayanta, Parveen (Lalampuia 92') , Parminder
                         (Benckok), Joshimar.

  Picture: Ganashakti

 

The group C 114th IFA Shield match between Mohun Bagan and Mahindra United ends in a draw. Both the teams have earned a point each and finished with 4 points. But Bagan has the goal advantage (+2) and hence moves into the semifinal. They will meet Chirag on 9th September.

Snehasish scored for Bagan in the first half. That was gem of a goal. Marcos gave a pass to James in the right flank – James was near the corner flag. He got hold of the ball, and then a brilliant left footer found Snehasish near the far post. His header was too strong for Subhasish Roy Choudhury who tried to fist the ball out. But the ball was found kissing the net from inside. Required to win the match by at least a three-goal margin for their progress into the semis, Mahindra United was forced onto the backfoot in the face of a concerted Mohun Bagan attack.Subhasish raised up for quite a number of times and stopped Bagan from scoring another goal.

 If Subhasish was the saviour for Mahindra, Shilton was there for Bagan. In number of occasions he showed his abilities and foiled Mahindra attacks, except for once. At the beginning of the second half Mahindra scored when Mijin got hold of the ball and made no mistake. The ball went past Deepak in the 2nd post. 

Both the teams tested the defense of the opponents. But in the second half Chiddi was the lone Bagan player in the attacking third. Hence Mahindra defense had no problems in covering him. However, referring was not up to the mark at all.

Bagan will now meet Chirag United on 9th September in the 2nd semi finals at Yuva Bharati Krirangan, on 8th I-League Champion Churchill Brothers will meet Air India in the first semi finals.

TEAMS

M.Mohun Bagan : Shilton Paul, Dipak Mondol, Rakesh Masih, N.Mohonraj, Surkumar Singh, Marcos Pereira, Kalia Kulothungon, Mickey Fernandez, Snehasish Chakrabarty (Santa Kumar), L.James Singh (Sangram Mandi), Chidi Edeh.

Mahindra United : Subhasish Roy Chowdhury, Denzil Franco, D.Ravanan, Kali Alaudden, Susant Mathew, Debabrata Roy, K.Thoi singh, Md. Rafi, Aseem Kutty, Muritala Ali(Sushil Singh), Suetogar Mijin (N.P.Pradeep)

Yellow Cards : Micky Fernandez, Marcos Pereira and Deepak Mondal (Mohun Bagan) and S.Muritala Ali (Mahindra United).

Referee : A. Arjunan (Services)

 

Mohun Bagan started the season with a bang. Mariners won the first match of IFA Shield 4-0. Chiddi scored a brace while James and Subho scored a goal each. Subho’s goal was from a 40 yards long ranger – gem of a goal

 

I-League runners-up Mohun Bagan opened their season in style, thrashing George Telegraph 4-0 in a one-sided Group C encounter of the historic IFA Shield. The twenty-time Shield champions Mohun Bagan scored through Chidi Edeh (3rd, 40th minutes), James Singh (38th) and substitute Subha Kumar (87th). Nigerian Chidi, new recruit of the Green-and-Maroons, missed a penalty and a few other sitters, which could have increased the goal margin. Playing on home turf with four of their national players — Deepak Mondal, Surkumar Singh, Rakesh Masih and N Mohan Raj — Mohun Bagan ruled the roost right from the kick-off, taking a 1-0 lead in the third minute.

Making most of a James Singh free-kick, Chidi deftly pushed the ball inside the net in an aerial clash with George’s goalkeeper Sibram Dey. In the 20th minute, Chidi was brought down inside the box by Amit Kundu, but the Nigerian failed to convert the penalty with a woefully off target shot, that ballooned over the bar.

               
But Bagan found the opposition net twice in a space of two minutes to go 3-0 up to wrap a superb first-half for the home side. James scored from a Marcos Pereira corner in the 38th minute. The corner kick was blocked by the George custodian but a well-anticipated James did not miss the chance. Capitalising on a Kalia Kulothungan pass, Chidi scored his second goal in the 40th minute with George finding the going tough.

           

The second saw George Telegrapg claw back some of the initiative but the midway substitutions restored status quo once again. Mohun Bagan got a few chances but it was towards the end of the match substitute Subha Kumar, who replaced Marcos, scored from 40 yard thunderbolt which left the opposition stunned, to complete the rout.

Baga



n will meet Mahindra United on Sunday.

Picture: Bartaman, Tridip Sheet

Padma Shree recipient, ex player of Mohun Bagan, Sailen Manna turns 85 today.

He is the former Indian captain of Asian Games gold medal winning team in 1951 who played his entire career for Mariners from 1942 to 1960, he became  captain of Mohun Bagan team for six years from 1950 to 1955. India won four successive titles in the South East Asian quadrangular meet (India, Pakistan, Burma and Sri Lanka) between 1952 and 1955.  In 2000, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) named him the `Indian Footballer of the Millennium".