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.

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

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 11^th 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 50^th minute (Surabuddin and Snehasis replacing David and Gouranga respectively) and the last one in the 64^th 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

 Picture Courtesy : Bartaman

Mohun Bagan had a comfortable win against Port Trust and continues to run for the title race in Sahara Kolkata Premier League 2010. Mohun Bagan are onto 34 points after a victory over Port Trust today.

Stanley Rosario made few changes from the side. Jose Barreto was there from the beginning as Chidi Edeh was suspended for double booking. Snehasish was there from the beginning as well. Harpreet replaced Mandi in defense. Bagan kept to their usual shape, a 4-4-2 that sometimes looks like a 4-4-1-1 because of the position of Jose Barreto .
Bagan started creating pressure on Port much before the game had even settled down, when Barreto’s low cross for Muritala was enough to break Port defense.  However Muritala fell short of the ball. Barreto scored the first goal just before end of the first half. He flicked the ball into the net from a Kingshuk centre (1-0). The Port defense was mesmerized and did not even move as Barreto got past his two markers.
Bagan changed its strategy in the second half and was attacking more. But two players were badly injured in this half. First it was Muritala who collided with the Port Goalie and had his hand injured. He required a medical attention before coming back into the ground.
Later Surabuddin was seriously fouled and had to be replaced.
In the 59th minute David replaced Surabuddin and Ashim replaced Snehasish.
Jayanta’s centralish position led more attacks after this change and in the 74th minute Kingshuk scored the second goal for Bagan. Bagan earned a corner and Kingshuk header made it 2-0.
Soon, Souvik replaced Barreto. His fresh legs kept of testing Port defense. During this session Muritala was in a scoring position in two occasions. However, Muritala had to wait for 90th minute to score a brilliant goal- as he got a pass from souvik and showed his worth by turning and kicking the ball into the goal (3-0).
Port were reasonably impressive despite rarely looking like taking anything from the game.

Kingshuk Debnath was declared as Man of the Match for brilliant performance.

Mohun Bagan: Shilton, Kingshuk, Karan, Harpreet, Dhanarajan, Satish, Jayanta, Surabuddin (U-19) (David 59′), Snehasish (Ashim 59′), Muritala, Barreto (Souvik 75′).

Today’s match at a glance

Man of the Match – Kingsuk Debnath

Mohun Bagan lost in the final of MSC Platinum Jubilee Cup to arch rival Kingfisher East Bengal in the tie breaker on Sunday at Yuba Bharati Krirangan. The match was 2-2 in regulation period and at the end of extra time it was 3-3. The match had gone to tie-breaker and Kingfisher East Bengal won the match by scoring 3 goals in the tie breaker while Bagan scored only 2 goals.

It was the match of prestige but both the team came down to the ground with their second team because of both team’s Sahara CFL commitment.Sanju Pradhan, Robin Singh and Susanth Mathew scored in succession for East Bengal from the spot kicks, but their colleagues Ravinder and Biswajit Natta failed to convert. Mohun Bagan’s opening pair of penalty takers, Souvik Chakraborty and Snehasis Chakraborty failed to score putting pressure on the team. Rahul Kumar and Dipendu Dowari scored to reduce the margin to 2-3 and with Biswajit missing, all hopes of Mohun Bagan rested on Gourango to equalize. However, his shot went high and it was all over.

Mohun Bagan played an aggressive attacking game from the first minute but failed to strike in the first half. At the other end, e Alvito D’ Cunha gave East Bengal the lead with a left foot grounder in the injury time of the first session. Crossing over, Mohun Bagan drew parity through Satish Kumar and Ashim Biswas made it 2-1 with a header. However, Bagan could retain their lead for only 12 minutes when Robin Singh equalized for East Bengal. In the extra time, Robin Singh found the target for East Bengal before Harpreet Singh brought both sides to an even keel.

Teams:

Kingfisher East Bengal : Nasim(Jayanta), Saikat, Sunil, Gurwinder, Ravinder, Sanju, Sushant, Alvito, Aseem ( Biswajit), Robin, Budhiram (Bikash).

Mohun Bagan : Sangram, Biswajit(Dipendu), Kingshuk, Sagram ( Rahul), Harpreet, Souvik, Snehasish, Jaken ( Gouranga), Satish, Santosh, Asim.

It is another occasion when foreign team will play against Mohun Bagan in their visit to India. Sheffield FC of England will be participated in the another Kolkata outfit Mohammedan Sporting Club’s Platinum Jubilee Cup and as a part of that they will meet National Club of India at Salt Lake Stadium on Friday, 12th November from 3pm onwards. Sheffield FC was established in 1857 and is the oldest club of World. After Pele’s Cosmos, Roger Milla, Oliver Kahn’s Bayern Munich and Diego Maradona, it is Sheffield FC in front of the Mariners. Sheffield FC plays in EVO-STICK LEAGUE.

In the perspective of Mohun Bagan this match has importance but not more than CFL because in the present situation of the League table it is clearly shown that Mariners are also in the run to grab the CFL title like last three years, it will be their fourth CFL title in a row. After finishing CFL there is I League, so no more space for relaxation what so ever for the team Mohun Bagan. After loosing in the Fed Cup final by Referee Dinesh Nair Calcutta League is the primary target for the Mariners.

However the match against International outfit is always important for the teams of India and Mohun Bagan is no different from that point of view. So team Mohun Bagan will play the match as well as the tournament with their full ability. But Jose Barreto may not be played in tomorrow’s match against Sheffield. Other players are going to be played in this AFC recognised tournament.

Meanwhile other two clubs Host Mohammedan Sporting and Kingfisher East Bengal will take part in the second match of the day from 6 pm onwards. All the matches are in knock out format and the winner of the two matches will meet on Sunday 14th Novmber at the same venue from 3.15pm onwards to lift the prestigious Platinum Jubilee Cup.

The schedule is mentioned below:

Date & Time                                   Venue                                                 Teams

12/11/2010 (3.00pm)         Yuba Bharati Krirangan                Mohun Bagan vs Sheffield FC.

12/11/2010 (6.00pm)         Yuba Bharati Krirangan                Mohammedan vs K.East Bengal

14/11/2010 (3.15pm)         Yuba Bharati Krirangan         The Final (winner of 1st and 2nd match)

Bagan won against West Bengal Police by 4-0 margin in a Sahara CFL match. Bagan is now on 31 points from 12 matches. Chidi, Muritala, Souvick and Snehasis scored the goals for mariners. While Police team was not in their full strength due to their other duties. However, Mariners are eying the CFL title.

After diwali celebration it is the first match of Mohun Bagan. They attacked the opponent today with their striker duo Chiddi and Muritala, while Jose Barreto was not in the team due to his illness. David was in the first-XI as under-19 player. Coach Stanley’s experiment with the team continued as Gouranga and Dhanrajan found their place in first XI.

Bagan started well with a lot of attacks. But their majority of the attacks were ended in vain as the Mohunbagan attackers couldn’t overcome the offside trap of the Policemen. The Mariners had to wait till 21 minute to score their first goal through Edeh Chidi and got the lead (1-0). Chidi ran along with the ball in to the box , kept his balance even though he was slightly off-balanced and got past goalkeeper to push the ball inside the net.  Brilliant solo effort by Edeh Chidi.

In the 44th minute Muritala was tackled off the ball inside the penalty box by Police defender and referee had given penalty for Bagan, Muritala scored a right footer grounder and the ball kissed the net (2-0).

In the added time of the 1st half Chidi was tackled in the Police Penalty Box but this time referee thought that it was simple play acting by Chidi and shown him yellow card. As a result, the ace striker will miss the next match as he was shown another yellow against George Telegraph match. 

In the second half Ashim came in for Edeh Chidi. In the 67th and 68th minute Surabuddin and Snehasis came in the place of David, Gouranga respectively.

In the 69th minute Souvick taken a long ranger shot as much as from 25 yards and increased the margin of goal to 3-0. This was indeed a brilliant effort from the talented young blood.

In the 87th minute its Snehasis got the ball from Dhanrajan and he made no mistake to score from it. It was another brlliant movement by Snehasis himself.

Team:

Mohun Bagan: Shilton, Sagram, Karan, Kinshuk, Dhanarajan, Souvik, David (Surabuddin), Jayanta, Gouranga (Snehasis), Chidi (Ashim), Muritala.

Fact sheet of today’s match at a glance

In absence of Barreto, it was late Chiddi-Muritala magic at Yuba Bharati Krirangan today as the Mariners registered another emphatic victory over Md. Sporting. 3 – 0 score line is a perfect Diwali gift for all the fans and supporters of Mohun Bagan and the team is celebrating 7th straight win in CFL during post puja campaign.

Pre-match discussions at the members’ gallery were revolving round Barreto, who was yet to recover from fever. It was a rare occasion when Barreto’s name was not included in the player’s list and that too against a heavy weight team like Md. Sporting, who has been playing well under the guidance of their new coach.

Today’s match – fact sheet at a glance