Month: November 2010

Black Friday syndrome – introspection, integrity and irritation

Even after 36hrs since the Mariners lost yet another crown, millions of fans have still not recovered from the state of shock and awe. Despite unquestionable solidarity with the Club, all the fans, followers and well-wishers would like to ask perhaps one common question – how long do we need to fight with our patience before the new dawn sets in the horizon of Mohun Bagan lawn?

Win and loss are parts and parcel of any game. Since the inception in 1889; we, the Mariners, always take pride in standing united with every triumph and slump with the Club. Our pride and integrity as ‘Mariners’ will remain the same even after loosing consecutive three times in a row against our arch rival in this season, even after pretty ordinary performance by our team in current season and even after realizing various loopholes in team formation and team strategy.

mohunbaganclub.com – the premier fan site of the National Club of India believes that co-existence of three distinct yet vibrant functions for more than a century have made Mohun Bagan Club an institution of national repute. Squad with superior skills and talents; dynamic and efficient club management and thousands of members, supporters and well wishers across the globe are the three functions. Being a fan site, our exposure is limited to the sentiments of the fans and supporters. We don’t have the direct access to other two functions of the club. Going by the fans’ perception, it’s hard time for us to accept the fact that all are not going well for us. Going by the team performance as the yard stick, we share the united view with millions of Mariners across the globe that we have not been doing justice to our reputation in recent past.
 
For the fans, it’s a tough time to wait for 8 long years to see the coveted iLeague crown in our club tent, to see our team looking clueless against our arch rivals, to see a fragile defense succumb every now and then even against non reputed local city football clubs.
After the Black Friday, the fans and supporters are in gauged mood as irritation of non performance of the team grips in.
 
Having said all the facts and realities, we would like to share one ‘open letter’ written by a die hard fan addressing to our club administration and sent us electronically. This letter represents the sheer frustration and irritation that have been growing amongst the millions of common fans and supporters whose heart belong to the National Club of India but might not have the access to convey their sentiment to the squad members and the club administration.
— An open letter by a Mohun Bagan supporter —–
Respected Club Administrators,

1) First let me congratulate you all for selecting a tremendous team this season which is capable of winning all the trophies (although actually nothing has come in, given the fact that the "OTHER" club already has 3 and looks like making a clean sweep)

2) Thanks a lot for selecting precious a diamond (Diamondstar) someone who had to be hidden away off the field and on it was only a cause of sheer embarrassment for us. Your judgment makes us glow with pride. To add insult to injury, you then hire a coach whose team was relegated last season and also has the ignominy of conceding the maximum number of goals, although it is a different matter that they thrashed us by a double brace in our home. Oh I got it, you want to recruit only those coaches who have been able to defeat our star spangled team.

3) While others can put Robin Singh on the ground, we have a Shorab or kamar ud-din. Why are our boys languishing in AIFF XI when Robin Singh is out. You dazzling efficiency make us proud once more.

4) I also humbly grovel in delight at the world class defense that you have recruited. Only one question is the club paying them, or are they paying the club to wear our colors?

5) The only things you can do is to create some controversy and keep yourselves in the limelight. Do remember that it is the club that has made each and every one of you, you haven’t made the club. Without the shelter of our club, you are no better than the beggar who sits on the opposite sidewalk of our club. You blame the referee and the tie breaker, now…WHAT? You are miles away from the culture of our club. We do not protest, we do not run away, we play and win on the field. But you wouldn’t know that, you are running the club for your own end, not for the love of the club, but the status and prestige it brings to you. The founding fathers would be turning in their graves at the look of you.

6) What happened to the Baichung issue? Our club put up some idiot as its lawyer and got white washed. Could our club not afford a decent lawyer? Why did the officials not declare that, we could have put up someone whose really good and won the case. We had the advantage, but we let go simply because of our inept, corrupt and self serving officials, basically, YOU.

 

Keeping all the above points in mind I am giving you a few suggestions, for the betterment of yourself and thereby also of the club

a) You will not stop taking kick-backs in player recruitment, so I suggest you guys fix a ceiling and stick to it. That way, we will have the scope of getting at least a few good players.

b) The coach should know coaching, and should not be an expert in shoe-shining only. He should be able to understand that this is football we are talking about, yes, the one that he stitches, but what to do with it is a different ball-game to how it is made.

c) Finally, stop making excuses, and read the dictionary meaning of RESIGNATION. The whole bunch should just resign.

Thnx & regards,
A proud Mohun Bagan Supporter

Bagan goes down 0-2, loses crown

Bagan went down 0-2 against Kingfisher East Bengal. Robin Singh scored for the local club once in each half. In both the cases its Bagan defense and goalkeeper Shilton Pal to be blamed!

But, moreover it is a big question why Bagan went down against Kingfisher East Bengal. Here are some big questions that were raised by the fans and supporters of Mohun Bagan –

1. Why was a completely new set of players there in the defense? The defense was comprised of Rahul, Kingshuk, Harpreet and Dhanarajan and shilton behind them. For last two years Deepak was leading the defense, with Sangram providing direction to the team while under the bar. Who is the leader of the defenders Mr Rosario ?

2. Why both Jayanta and Manish were there in the team while both Snehasish and Ishfaq were there in the bench? Bagan had how many moves from the let flank before Snehasish came in ?

3. Both Chidi and Muritala are dangerous when and only when they get ball inside the box. with Okhpara cuting off the supply line for last 4 matches- what was the alternate plan Mr. Rosario? Shouldn’t one of Snehasish or Ishfaq (who is not 100% match fit) have been there in the frst half?

4. 15 corners and we failed to score a single goal – this is happening for long – have you fixed it Mr. Rosario ?

5. Bagan’s inability to retain possession and dictate the play has proved the critical factor in both legs. This is happening game after game – what did you do to fix it Mr. Rosario?

6. Gourango Datta, who provided the team much neeeded consolidation during Fed Cup campaign, was not even given a chance in this crucial darby. Should we call it a good strategy Mr. Coach?

An alarming lack of ball retention, tons of miss-passes  and capability to shut out a match has bitten them where it hurts, No more excuses of poor refereeing Mr. Rosario – you win matches when you score and you don’t get defeated when you don’t concede goals. One is surprised to see how Jose Barreto took poor shots or how he loses his tempers against Okhpara. Mr. Rosario – this has happened in last few matches when Okhpara is playing against Barreto – did you suggest a Barreto to change in strategy so that he can get past Okhpara ? One wonders! We are now moving into iLeague – and the fans are not very optimistic with your game plans!

Teams:

KEB: Jayanta, Okpara, Saikat, Soumik, Gurwinder, Mehtab, Penn, Sanju( Alvito 87′), Sushant, Robin( Budhiram 70′), Tolgey ( Ravinder 66′).

MB: Shilton, Rahul, Kingsukh, Harpreet, Jayanta ( Snehasish), Manish, Dhanarajan (Isfaq ), Surabuddin, Muritala (Ashim), Chidi, Barreto.

Today’s match at a glance

Opponent team Kingfisher East Bengal
Date 26-Nov-10
Venue Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata
Kick off time 4:30 PM
No. of goal Mohun Bagan scored 0
Opponent scored 2
Number of yellow card shown to MB Players 1 (Barreto)
Number of red cards shown to MB players 0
Average age of 1st XI 25.1 yrs
Average age of the squad (registered for Fed cup) 23.3 yrs
1st half Score  0 – 1
Style of formation  4 – 4 – 2
Substitutions  
1 Snehasis in place of Jayanta(48mt)
2 Ishfaq in place of Dhanarajan(68mt)  
3 Ashim in place of Muritala (60mt.)
  

 

 

 

Mohun Bagan beat Peerless 2 – 1 in a nail biting encounter

In a stunning encounter, Muritala scored twice in injury time to register a 2 -1 victory for the Mariners against Peerless. It’s really going to be a tough ask to write a match report for anyone who has just watched today’s encounter at the Mohun Bagan Ground. Ever after the long whistle blown by the referee, spectators remained on their toes as they couldn’t believe what they had witnessed in the last 10 minutes of the match. The great game of football proves once again – ‘Nothing is impossible provided you fight for it’.

After a galore of miss-passes and wastage of dozens of set pieces, pretty unimpressive Mariners suddenly woke up in the dying minutes and in the process ace striker Muritala scored 2 stunning goals to earn 3 points and keep the team in the championship race. Coach Stanley continued to experiment with the first XI as he rested Snehasis, Kaushik, Surabuddin and Dhanarajan and brought in Biswajit, Gouranga, David and Chiddi.  The other reason is for  experiementation is  that  all the rested players were shown yellow card in the earlier macthes. Mariners were quickly into their stride and earned a few corners within first 10 minutes. They came close to open the score card in the 11th minute when the last defender of Peerless narrowly prevented the ball from crossing the goal line. Mohun Bagan tried to establish a grip on the game but failed to score even with taking advantage of having an extra midfield player of the stature of Barreto.
But Peerless stunned Mohun Bagan by taking their lead via Binod Bauri when they converted a corner in the injury time of the first half. (0-1) The Mariners went to lemon break trailing by a goal.
Mohun Bagan tried to retaliate and continued to dominate the game right from the beginning of the second half. It was a do-or-die situation for Stanley as he opted for 2 back to back substitutions in the 50th minute (Surabuddin and Snehasis replacing David and Gouranga respectively) and the last one in the 64th minute (Manish in place of Jayanta) and went into an all out attacking mode. The game turned out to be a battle of resilience of the Peerless goalkeeper and the desperate Mohun Bagan attacking force. Mohun Bagan failed to capitalize as many as 10 corners and this might be a serious concern for coach Stanley in view of forthcoming I-League.
Frustration was mounting both inside the ground as well as at the stands. It was almost looking like a hopeless situation when the match went into the injury time of 6 additional minutes. And suddenly it was a magical display of Muritala as he equalized from Chiddi’s centre (1-1).
A draw couldn’t be a consolation for the Mariners and the ace striker knew it well. In the last minute of injury time, Mohun Bagan earned a corner and that was the last opportunity. Snehasis floated the ball in from the corner, Muritala connected the ball with his head and stunned the crowd!! (2-1). 3 points were finally earned for the Mariners, which would now keep them very much in the championship race.

Team:

Mohun Bagan: Shilton, Biswajit, Harpreet, Karan, David (Surabuddin), Jayanta ( Manish), Nazimuddin, Gouranga ( Snehasish), Chidi, Barreto, Muritala.

 

 Today’s match – fact sheet at a glance

Opponent team Kolkata Port Trust
Date 22-Nov-10
Venue MB Ground, Kolkata
Kick off time 2:30 PM
No. of goal Mohun Bagan scored 2 [Mutitala (90+1′, 90+6′] 
Opponent scored 1
Number of yellow card shown to MB Players 0
Number of red cards shown to MB players 0
Average age of 1st XI 24.3 yrs
Average age of the squad (registered for Fed cup) 23.3 yrs
1st half Score  0 – 1
Style of formation  4 – 4 – 2
Substitutions
1 Surabuddin in place of David(50mt)
2 Shegasis in place of Gouranga(50mt)
3 Manish in place of Jayanta(64mt)

 Picture Courtesy : Bartaman