La Paz today remained witness to the total professionalism of Mohun Bagan against their home team Shillong Lajong FC. Mariners defeated Lajong by 2-1 in the fifth round match of ONGC I League. Aibor scored from a penalty for the home team at 54th minute of the match, whereas mariners’ derby star Edeh Chiddi continued with his brilliant form to rescue Bagan from a 1 goal deficit. Chiddi scored a brilliant goal by heading in a Snehasis center at the 63rd minute of the match.
Three minutes later Brazilian Marcos Pereira had shown his class by a magnificent goal from a free-kick with his right footer instep, leaving a stunned Lajong goalie to fetch the ball.

The mariners had taken some time to understand the surface, which was justified because uneven bounce, invariable grass and hard surface didn’t help the players. From a James corner Snehasis had a free header at the near post but not in the target.The match was running basically in the middle third as mariners were trying to defend more than the attack. In this span of time Tuboi, the Lajong player was trying to get past Mohun Bagan defence quite a few occasion. Seven minutes after the lemon break Tuboi was pulled down from behind by Rakesh Masih inside the penalty box saw the referee have no qualms in pointing to the spot with skipper Aibor Khonjee coolly slotting it into the top corner. (1-0). Masih has been shown yellow card, and as a result Masih will miss the next match against Mumbai FC at home ground. After the goal the capacity crowd got absolutely fanatic in the stand as they were smelling the victory of their home team.
At 63rd minute of the match a brilliant center from Snehasis Chakraborty found the head of Edeh Chiddi and Chiddi made no mistake to net the ball. (1-1). Just three minutes later Mohun Bagan got a free kick just ahead of the center circle and Marcos Perriera this time scored a brilliant goal from his free-kick by his instep of right footer. (1-2)
Mohun Bagan used their experience as they slowed the pace of the game and played the ball in spaces with Chidi moving intelligently to disturb the composure of the Lajong backline.
Lajong should take heart from their performance as they were the better side for more than half of the game in terms of possession however, it was the experience and opportunism shown by Bagan which killed their chances of pulling off a shocker.

 Team: Sangram, Biswajit, Masih, Deepak, Surkumar, Snehasish (Zenith), Manish, Marcos, James, Chiddi, Ishfaq (Kulu).

 

REDEMPTION!!! 34 years of waiting comes to an end. 3 generations waited for this day. Finally it has come. After 34 years – Mohun Bagan has finally netted 5 (yes FIVE) goal in East Bengal’s net. When Chiddi left saturday’s practice, he promised to the supporters that he will score. But 4 goals ? FOUR ? Yes, the man of the match in sunday’s derby scored four goals alone. Young Manish scored the 5th for Mohun Bagan. One can be sure that Swapan Sadhan Basu and all mohun Bagan supporters in the whole world will emphasize the strength of the very name MOHUN BAGAN today.

Head Coach Karim Bencharifa will emphasise the strength of character and irrepressible attacking force that saw his team Mohun Bagan score five goals in a stunning 16-minute first-half and 20 mins second-half spell to destroy East Bengal team that were 1-0 ahead and cruising at the interval. Edeh Chiddi alone scored 4 goals, while Manish Maithani scored another for the team. Mohun Bagan looked beyond redemption as Chiddi and Manish struck for 5 times – and the supporters travelled back to 1975. Team Mohun Bagan and Head Coach must have believed their track record of last year’s iLeague.

The coach showed that he really had a Plan B up his sleeves and really delivered a telling blow, which left the opponents stunned. After conceding the lead early in the game Bagan exploded in a spell of 20 minutes and the score sheet changed to 1-3. Thereafter the opposition made a deft change and they were back in the game thanks to some daft goalkeeping by Shilton Paul. At the break the score stood at 3-3. It was the most nervous lemon break we have had in a long long time. The second half saw a transformed Bagan, the boys were running riot up and down the field. All departments did a splendid job and the result stood at 5-3 at 90 minutes. The opposition was left stunned and stupefied, it was one payback that they didn’t see coming. The coach should be given complete credit for the way the team turned around in the second half. However, the only bitter taste in the mouth was left by the custodian Shilton, whose temperament and the coach’s wisdom in fielding him has to be really questioned.

Mohun Bagan made a huge statement of their iLeague title intentions on Sunday when they beat East Bengal 5-3 at Yuva Bharati Krirangan to cut the gap on leaders Chirag United. Edeh Chiddi and Manish Maithani scored the goals as last year’s Runner up Mohun Bagan moved up, in the table. East Bengal needed to chase the game in the second half but mohun Bagan always looked the more likely to score again and Chiddi, who was superb throughout, made it five for Bagan and his fourth as he scored in 17th, 33rd, 46th and 66th minutes with Manish scoring in the 22nd minute. Chiddi’s two goals in the second half was the end of East Bengal’s resistance and Mohun Bagan rounded off a successful evening.

But it was not Mohun Bagan in the beginning. Both the teams started well with a few early chances. Then Nirmal Chettry scored for East Bengal in the 9th minute It was a replay of a Rahim Nabi 2nd goal in the last derby. Chettry was unmarked – and he scored with ease. The goal changed the body language of Bagan players. It started with one of the team’s best recruits of the season – Surkumar Singh. He snatches the ball from an East Bengal player in the midfield -dribbles Gobin well – gets near the side bar and a measured chip finds Chiddi. Chiddi was waiting for the ball to come and his shot made it 1-1. It was his 150th iLeague match. Jose Barreto wanted to make it memorable. Inthe 22nd minute his brilliant move from the right flank found Snehasish. Snehasish’s thrugh for Chiddi was equally brilliant. Nabi tried to clear the ball – but it went to Manish and a 25 yards power shot made it 2-1. Barreto and Chidd started changing positions – and East Bengal defenders soon ran out of ideas. In the 33rd minute Barreto moved from left and his cross for Chiddi made it 3-1.

After the third goal, East Bengal defenders and midfielders were found shivering – but then two mistakes from Shilton Pal made it 3-3. First a misunderstanding between Shilton and Masih found the ball cross the goal line. This horrible show was not enough – in the 44th minute Shilton and the defense again goofed up allowing East Bengal to score their third. Both goals were actually gifted by Bagan’s defenders and Shilton. Karim replaced Shilton with Sangram in the 2nd half. Sangram and Surkumar started guiding Masih and Mandi. Mohanraj also started taking extra load. But that happened much later. Chiddi scored in the 46th minute. Snehasish got past Mehraj – got control of the ball – crossed it to James, who passed it to Chiddi. Chiddi had his first hat-trick of the season. In the 53rd minute Mohanraj was booked. In the 57th minute Barreto was tackled nastily by Gobin – and he was not in a position to continue any more. He was replaced with Ishfaq. Barreto was found weeping as he left the ground. In the 66th Minute Chiddi scored the 5th goal for Bagan. The supporters roared in the stadium. It was another round of Diwali celebration all over Bengal. Then Marcos went down to stopper position, and led the team from there. In the 92nd minute Snehasish was replaced by Tomba, a minute after that, 60,000 people were found dancing in the stands, as if there’s no tomorrow.

Mohun Bagan :Shilton(Sangram), Mohanraj, Masih, Sagram ,Surkumar, Snehashis(Tomba),Manish,Marcos, James, Chiddi, Bareto (Isfaq)

East Bengal :Abhra, Nirmal, Mehraj, Govin, Nabi, Mitrovic (Alvito),Mehtab, Riston (Harmonjyot),Renedy (Subhas), Yakubu, Hammond

Picture Cortesy: Sangbad Pratidin, Aajkaal

The Mohun Bagan football team was deprived of a practice session on Thursday. This incident was brought in notice of the Sports Minister of West Bengal, who immediately prompted for an action. We would like to see what actions are taken against the official who was behind this incident. mohunbaganclub.com has learnt that the same official is known for “managing” the referees for a local club!mohunbaganclub.com has learnt team Mohun Bagan was scheduled for a practice session in Yuva Bharati Krirangan on Thursday. But due to some unknown reasons Mohun Bagan’s scheduled practice was cancelled by the Stadium Authority and a city club, whom Bagan faces in the next iLeague match, was assigned the same slot.

Defending champion Mohun Bagan will play against Kalighat Club on 21st October 2009, Wednesday at Mohun Bagan Ground in their first match in Kolkata premier League’09.

This is the first time when I League and local league will be running simultaneously. So Coach Kareem Bencherifa is deeply concerned about the situation. Team management has already decided to play the local league with local boys mainly. There is a lot of  practice matches are scheduled between the league matches, so that all the players get in touch of  match play situation. If any foreigner they will include in the team for Kolkata League, that will be Chiddi. Marcos and Barreto will be thought only for I League matches. However Barreto is still not fit and uncertain for 25^th October I League derby as well. Mariners have registered Souvik and Parminder from MohunBaganAcademy for Kolkata league matches.

 We hope Mariners will make a hat-trick of winning Kolkata Premier League this year in style.

The match will start from 2.30 pm. The live update will be available in this website.

 

Olympiad and Mohun Bagan’s star player Kesto Pal passed away this morning. Kesta Pal was selected for the Olympic team in 1956. In 1956 Mohun Bagan lifted the Rovers Cup for the first time. Then Mohun Bagan lifted both the Calcutta crowns by becoming League and IFA Shield champions. Including this year’s victory, Club won League for 3 consecutive times. Kesto Pal was a key contributor for Mohun Bagan that year.
1956 – Mohun Bagan.

 He was among the  nine surviving members of Indian football squad that made into semifinals of the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games who have decided to return the grant of Rs 25,000 sent to them by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) recently.

AIFF’s decision was strongly criticised by the football fraternity. Pal felt that they were treated as  beggars, as the amount given by them is nothing as compared to their achievement.

 

Standing from the left: Subhasish Guha, Samar Banerjee, Kesta Paul, Chandan Singh, Susheel Guha, Sailen Manna. At the ground from left: Raman, S.Sen, Robin Guha, Narsia and Chuni Goswami.

 

You doubtlessly have heard by now of AIFF`s decision to charge Deepak for his clear slide in the JCT match. The charge leads to a two match suspension and fine of Rs. 10000. People can argue about semantics and make excuses all they like, but the fact is the referee violated the spirit of the game to provide an unfair advantage to some clubs.

However, AIFF have now given themselves an enormous problem with this action- the lid has been jimmied off the tin and the worms are crawling everywhere. One can only hope that the Nehru Cup was not rigged, and so is the iLeague. The case, arising from a marching order shown to Deepak Mandal in a match between Mohun Bagan and JCT in the iLeague, is rapidly becoming the talk of the town, since it has wider implications for the professional game. The video footage confirmed that the referee, Arumughan Rowan, was wrong in showing Deepak the second yellow card. Perhaps he was determined to make sure Deepak misses the match against Kingfisher East Bengal. His match report confirms that.

For the first time in Indian football history a refereeing error could have led to a successful appeal for a review. But perhaps AIFF wanted to avoid the dispute at the cost of Deepak Mandal and Mohun Bagan.

The implications are wide-ranging. Strictly speaking, any referee who does not qualify to the take proper decisions and vindictively reports wrongly such that a key player misses an important match, and the team could become the victim, was not even criticised by AIFF. Was that intentional ? Was AIFF worried that the said referee, whose decisions in Nehru Cup made sure an able team does not qualify in the final that India won, might open up his mouth! If this is the way football is heading, very soon the football house will all that we will be left with.

We would like to know on what basis Deepak was fined and suspended. First, the video footage shows clearly it was a normal clearance, no infringement was caused. Second, the charges of kicking and spitting on the refree is absurd and childish. There is absolutely no evidence of it either.

 If this is the way AIFF controls football and refrees and its players, excuse me while I fall down laughing.

Chief coach Karim Bencharifa exclaimed that referring is marring Mohun Bagan’s opportunity of winning the iLeague for the season. If the referring standard of today’s match is considered, one will have to sincerely accept his concerns. In this match referring is absurd and an authentic comedy leaving a lot to be desired. One wonders if there is any intension of AIFF to conduct some courses for match officials. Otherwise AFC could step in and intervene before the game of football is snatched away by out of the ground adjustments.

It is not easy to prove if some referees are compromised to benefit some teams but the way the game is handled lives little doubts. One can cite example of the soccer match between JCT and Mohun Bagan that have been poorly officiated to benefit the others. It is unfair to fans who sacrifice their money and efforts to support their teams but only to get frustrated by the irregularities normal committed by a referee whose intentions are questionable. The same referee’s poor decisions made Lebanon move out of Nehru Cup this year. Lebanon lodged official complain against him to AIFF.

Very few cases have called the attention of the federation in as far as disciplinary measures are concerned, with most going unnoticed or to be more realistic, ignored.  Poor referring can be a result of lack of skills. Refresher courses need to be frequently taken to capacitate them. They need to read more about the subject of referring to update themselves. 

In today’s match if Deepak’s marching order was comic, depriving Suraj of a penalty was a serious offense. 

Both Mohun Bagan and JCT tried their best to score. It was JCT who scored two goals in 46th and 56th minute respectively. Bagan defense sloppy shows were costly in both the occasions. Branco reduced the margin, but then Suraj was deprived of a penalty when he was pulled down. One can recall that Shilton was booked when he broke his leg.

Deepak got a marching order today while a Video footage will confirm that he wasn’t to be blamed for the incident. With Manju and Vasan out, Bagan will definitely have trouble in fielding a stopper beside Masih in the next match.

 After a barren first half, JCT took the advantage of complacency and sluggishness of our defense and scored their first goal immediately after lemon break. Time and again the left back position have been exposed as a weak link and oppositions have successfully utilized it. JCT’s second goal was also a defensive lapse as the defenders allowed opposition’s free movement in penetrative zone. Till then no one knew that worst was still to come for Mohun Bagan. Left back, MohanRaj got injured and was taken to the hospital. Right back, Zenith, was also injured in an aerial challenge. However, he came back after treatment. In the meantime Branco reduced the margin with a powerful shot from the edge of the penalty box. As MohunBagan went all out for equalizer, the referee played his part. First he deprived Suraj of a penalty, which was unthinkable. Then he picked his next victim, Deepak. Deepak’s offence was simple. He cleared a ball with a superb sliding tackle. It was a real comic one. Thousands of fans and supporters, who were present either in stadium or in front of TV screens, could not imagine such a blunder.

 Our coach and officials would sure have a tough time to pick first eleven for the next match as Barreto and MohanRaj are in injury list, Deepak, and Branco are unavailable due to card and players like Manju, Habibur, Sk.Azim etc are not yet fit.

 

Teams:

JCT: Karanjeet Singh , Jaspal Singh ,Sunil Kumar, Baljeet Singh Saini ( Pawan Kumar 88′),Jagpreet Singh, Daljeet Singh, Penn Orji , Daljeet Singh, Gurwinder Singh , Shakatar Singh (Jaswinder Singh 74′), Baldeep Singh Jr.

 

Mohun Bagan: Shilton Paul , Deepak Mondol , Zenith, Rakesh Masih, N. Mohonraj (Subho Kumar 69′), Mickey Fernandez (Suraj Mondol 58′),Marcos Pereira, Isfaq Ahmed (Snehasish Chakrabarty ), James Singh , Chidi Eden , Branco Cordozo.