Mohun Bagan was upset 2-0 in the Federation Cup semifinals Derby match today. With couple of sublime strikes by Yakubu and Mehtab ending a 10-match unbeaten streak.

On the last day of the year 2009 its another derby match between the two arch rival of Kolkata Football. But this time not in Kolkata, in fact in Guwahati, 2nd semifinal of Federation Cup. This is the three consecutive years when these two teams are facing each other in Federation Cup Semifinal. In last year Fed Cup in Kolkata Bagan defeated KEB in tie-breaker, while it was 1-1 in 120 minutes. These two teams already met once in the season, it was an I-League clash, where Mariners derailed their arch rival by 5-3, and made a history. Edeh Chiddi scored a brilliant hat-trick with 4 goals.

But this is a knock-out encounter, when the margin of error will be very costly for both the teams. Mohun Bagan was in the Group-B, where they played against two Kolkata giants Mohammedan Sporting and Chirag along with starred Mahindra United from Mumbai. Mariners defeated both MSC and MU in the first and last group match by 4-1 and 2-0 respectively, whereas in the second match they faced CU and the result was goalless draw. The match against Mahindra United was seemed to be the best performance for the mariners till now of the season and they have to continue this type of performance to defend the Fed Cup championship for the 14 th time.

On the other hand Kingfisher East Bengal was in the group A, the most easiest group of the tournament. In the route to Semifinal they defeated Salgaocar and JCT by one goal in each occassion, while in the first match they drew against Viva Kerala. It is very improtant for KEB that they didn’t consume any goal till now in the tournament. Baichung Bhutia, the icon may play the match as he scored the winning goal in the last match against JCT and made easy the road to enter in to the Semifinal for his team. However his foriegner partner Yusuf Yakubu is not 100% fit as him. But Philip de Rider, coach of KEB has no other option to play without them. Young Budhiram Tudu is there but against Mohun Bagan there must be severe pressure, so experience always vital for this type of match. In the defence Oga Opara the newly recurit Nigerian for the red and gold brigade is playing well and Mehrajuddin Wadoo, Mehtab Hossain also back in the form as well.

Mohun Bagan is favourite declared by the other coaches of variuos teams. Churchill Coach Carlos, Lajong FC Coach Stanley Rojario, Pune FC Coach Derek Perreira have already given upper hand to the team Mohun Bagan by seeing ther performance. But Bagan coach Kareem Bencheria is not so over-confident as he knows that the match will  not be so easy to win. But he is confident about his team as his boys are well focuced. But the 5 goal tempo should be avoided this time as this the the knock-out round and as important as Semifinal of Federation Cup, Kareem told. He also told that they will think about themselves 70% and rest 30% about the opponent. Jose Barreto, Edeh Chiddi, Sueoka, James, Deepak, Sangram are the key players for them. Isfaq also played well in the last match against Mahindra. He is playing in the place of Snehasis Chakraborty. Snehasis was injured in the match against Chirag United in the group league stage.

However, this is the derby match, and no prediction will counted there in the match, only the time will say who will party in the night of 31st December.

In another semifinal I-League champion Churchill Brothers will meet the newcomer, the surprise package Shillong Lajong FC today from 5pm.

“We don’t care who is facing us in the semifinal Our job is to get into the final” – says Head Coach Karim Bencharifa. He adds “I want to give credit to Mahindra United and their coach. Our performance against Chirag was better though. The crowd is always with us. they have come down from Kolkata even.”. Karim seemed to be confident and his body language was not reflecting overjoy – but rather was representing self confidence as Mohun Bagan routed Mahindra United 2-0 to move into the semifinal of Federation Cup.

Mohun Bagan was leading 1-0 at the end of first half against Mahndra United in the group league match at Guwahati. In the first 20 minutes Mahindra tested Bagan defense 3 times. Sangram showed his brilliance couple of times.

 From the 21st minute onwards Bagan started controlling the game. This was the time when James Singh started showing his worth and soon Mahindra defense was exposed. Later Barreto and Chidi got some opportunities but failed to score. In the 40th minute Barreto was pushed from back by Ravanan inside the box, and the referee whistled for a penalty. Barreto converted that to a goal by placing the ball to left of Subhasish (1-0).

Chidi increased Bagan’s lead in the 49th minute as he got a Biswajit Saha cross from the left, controlled it as the ball got deflected from a Mahindra defender, and he made no mistake to push the ball to the left of Subhasish (2-0).

In the 56th minute Barreto was close to increase the lead but Sushant Mathew saved it for MU. In the next minute Masih missed the easiest chance of the day as his header went out.

Deepak Mandal and Sangram were outstanding and foiled many of Mahindra attacks.

Another player who played really well was Ishfaq Ahmed. Ishfaq was found losing his temper when Steven Dias went for a nasty tackle from behind. After the game was over, Ishfaq was asked about the incident and he mentioned that he is working on controlling his tempers.

Bagan will face the winner of Group A in the semifinal.

One must add, that for the first time in his career referee Dinesh Nair handled the incidents on the ground very well. Mohunbaganclub.com takes the chance to congratulate for officiating well.

Mohun Bagan: Sangram, Biswajit, Dipak, Azim, Surkumar, Ishfaq, Masih, Sueoka, James(Tomba 92′), Barreto (Souvik 93′) Chidi.

Picture Courtesy : AAJKAAL