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

Opponent team	Kolkata Port Trust
Date	19-Nov-10
Venue	MB Ground, Kolkata
Kick off time	2:30 PM
No. of goal Mohun Bagan scored	3 [Barreto, Kingsuk,Muritala]
Opponent scored	0
Number of yellow card shown to MB Players	0
Number of red cards shown to MB players	0
Average age of 1st XI	24.5 yrs
Average age of the squad (registered for Fed cup)	23.3 yrs
1st half Score	1 – 0
Style of formation	4 – 4 – 2
Substitutions
1	Ashim in place of Snehasis(59mt)
2	David in place of Surabuddin(59mt)
3	Souvik in place of Barreto(75mt)

 

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)