Mohun Bagan keeps a target of 386 runs for East Bengal in A N Ghosh Trophy group league. Winning the toss Bagan captain Sanjib Sanyal decided to bat first. Anustup Majumdar and Suvomoy Das brilliant century helped Bagan achieve 367 runs in 83 overs. East Bengal was short of 2 overs and Bagan got 18 penalty runs. Thus the target for East Bengal is now 386.

Meanwhile Bagan Football squad for the Lajong match has been announced. The team has –

Shilton, Sangram, Surkumar, Kingshuk, Dhanarajan, Sourav, Zeleny, gouranga, Snehasish, Ashim, Souvik, Odafa, Barreto, Jagtar, Daljit, Manish, Pradeep, Murali
 

Odafa saved Bagan from a pitfall. He scored twice in last 4 minutes of the “6 minutes added time”to give Bagan a crucial victory over BNR! Bagan finally won the game by 2-1, thanks to Odafa’s individual brilliance in this thrilling tie at Mohun Bagan ground today.

However Bagan, in search of its form,  picked a bad time here today though in the first half, for the first time in Premiere League the midfield was a formidable one. However, the TD made a change in the second half by replacing Manish with Avinash that helped BNR to come back in the match.

BNR scored in the57th minute when Bagan defense collapsed and Prasenjit made no mistake in scoring for his team. The TD, realising that opportunities and not getting converted into goals – soon fielded Barreto and Odafa . That gave the Green and Maroon brigade some momentum and BNR custodian became more busy.

He had a good time until in the 92nd minute when Odafa scored his first goal, and within couple of minutes Odafa showed his worth to get past almost all of the BNR team to score his second!

Barreto scored a clean goal but the assistant referee rejected the same claiming that Avinash’s cross went out !

In the post match press meet Mariners coach Prasanta Banerjee told that the team have not played well but three points has come and it is the main thing in a League. Now Mohun Bagan will next play against Shillong Lajong FC in an I League encounter on Friday, 2nd December at Imphal. In Sahara CFL McDowell Mohun Bagan will meet Emta Mohammedan Sporting on 8th December at Yuba Bharati Krirangan at 2.00 pm.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that Sunil Chhetri will join McDowell Mohun Bagan on 12th December after trial in Scottish Club Rangers and National duty.

Team: Sudipta, Surkumar, Daniel, Kingshuk, Daljit, Sourav, Pradeep(Odafa), Manish(Avinash), Gourango, Sakhatar(Barreto), Ashim 

Scorer – Odafa (2)

Picture Courtesy: AAJKAAL

Mohun Bagan will play against Shillong Lajong in the I League match at Imphal from 1.00 pm on Friday, 2nd December. Due to local political problem the organizer of the match have scheduled the match at 1.00 pm in the after-noon. There is daylight problem as well at Imphal. Mohun Bagan team management has learnt that there will be grass on the ground. Meanwhile, ruling committee of Mohun Bagan AC has been re-elected once again.

Ex-judge Manoranjan Mallick examined the nomination filed for election today. But the number of filed nomination was not more than 20 and number of executive members are also 20. So, it is declared that ruling committee has been re-elected. There are few changes in the executive committee. Ms. Sohini Mitra has been the first female member  of executive committee. Mr. Anjan Kumar Mitra is re-elected as General Secretary and Srinjay Bose as Asst. Gen. Secretary. Debasis Dutta is Finance Seretary and Desha Priya (Swadhin) Mallick is Ground Secretary as the previous tenure. There is inclusion of new member like Soumik Bose, Atin Ghosh.  Uttam Saha is named as Football Secretary and Samrat Bhowmick as Cricket Secretary.

In the Cricket Mohun Bagan defeated Mohammedan Sporting by 256 runs in an A. N. Ghosh Memorial match on Saturday. Brief scores: Mohun Bagan 395/8. Md. Sp. 139/8 (Ramesh Krishnan 41, Sami Ahmed 5/41). Bagan won by 256 runs. Mohun Bagan is at the top of the Group B by winning the both the group matches, whereas Sporting Union and East Bengal have won the one each and they are at the second spot. Mohun Bagan will meet East Bengal at Eden Gardens in the local cricket league Derby on 29-30 November. The top two teams of Group  will advance to the Semi-Final.

McDowell Mohun Bagan will play against BNR at Mohun Bagan Ground on Monday, 28th November in Sahara CFL. Kick-off time – 2:15pm.

Mohun Bagan and Prayag managers met at the IFA office this afternoon as per schedule. They officials learnt during the meeting that the West Bengal Sports Ministry has asked IFA and AIFF to reschedule all the football matches to afternoons. mohunbaganclub.com has learnt that Sports Ministry has also indicated that YBK might not be available for football and will undergo renovation. As a result Mohun Bagan – Prayag match has been rescheduled to 2pm – and there will be no LIVE Telecast by the electronic media during the game. As per schedule there will be deferred telecast from 6:30pm.

There is a possibility of a low turnout since most of Mohun Bagan fans are unaware of the change in timing – a very late decision from the Sports Ministry will ensure Bagan supporters are at the receiving end. One wonders whether this was done to satisfy a handful of people who wanted to misuse their  power in Calcutta football ( or rather sports in general) ! A very good advertisement of a huge turnout will be followed by a very poor turnout – just because a handful of people wanted to show their power – which is not good for Bengal’s sports.

Meanwhile I League commissioner visited Barasat Stadium today morning and he will submit his report to AIFF.  He told that he is happy with present accomodation of Barasat Stadium. But the final decision will be taken by AIFF Authority. AIFF banned Barasat Stadium after the match of Mohun Bagan and Churchill Brothers on January, 2010,  where crowd made nuisance and the stadium authority failed to protect the players from that.

Yakubu scored twice as Prayag came from behind twice to beat Mohun Bagan 3-2 in the 7th round of iLeague. Bagan took the lead twice in the game – first in the 24th minute when Snehasish scored and later in the 47th minute when Odafa scored. However , Sankar Oraon (42′) and Yakubu (P- 54′ and 56′) scored for Prayag to ensure they remain unbeaten in the iLeague. This was the second defeat for Bagan – and once again Bagan suffered from the absence of a match fit central midfielder.

Bagan first XI did not have an attacking central midfielder – rather Bagan TD and coach had to depend upon the three strikers. However, in the 15th minute Gouranga replaced the only central midfielder- Pradeep. Thus Bagan at that time had 4 defenders, one left half , two genuine right halves and three strikers. However Snehasish scored from a good move of Surkumar in the 24th minute. Sur gave a cross to Gouranga and Gouranga centred it to Snehasish who made no mistake (1-0). By that time Sangram and Kingshuk saved at least three chances – one of them was a goal line save by Kingshuk.

Prayag kept on attacking and the game was mostly into Bagan’s defensive third for the rest of the first half. At times Bagan was going for counter attacks. But with no genuine central midfielder – Bagan’s defenders started hitting long balls for Odafa , Sunil and Ashim.

Prayag started operating from the central midfield and right half. In the 42nd minute Sankar crossed a ball for Yakubu – whose header hit the post and rebounded. Joshimar made no mistake in converting the same into a goal(1-1)

In the 44th minute Yakubu got another chance but failed to convert the same.

After the lemon break Gouranga crossed from right for Sunil. Sunil’s shot was on target – but got deflected from a Prayag defender and went to Odafa. Odafa converted the same into a goal(2-1)

For next 8 minutes Bagan kept pressure on Prayag defense. However, from a counter attack in the 54th minute the ball hit Kingshuk in Bagan box and referee Md. Kamil awarded a penalty for Prayag. Yakubu took the shot – Sangram failed to save it (2-2)

Prayag kept on pressing Bagan defense and in the 56th minute earned a corner. Yakubu converted that into a goal (2-3)

In the 75th minute the TD had to take Odafa out – and put in Souvik – too late perhaps.

Immediately Prayag put in Subhash by taking Sankar out.  Bagan, failing to capture the central midfield, had another replacement in striker Jagtar for Gouranga.

But these changes were in vain and Prayag did well to defend their lead. The match ended in the 94th minute with Prayag earning 3 points from this game.

Certain questions will perhaps haunt the TD –

a) Had Pradeep been unfit – why didn’t he rely on Murali instead?

b) With absence of Barreto and Jewel why didn’t he field in a genuine central attacking midfielder from the beginning of the game – Manish or Souvik should have been into the team from the beginning instead.

c) Why did he rely on injured Odafa till the 75th minute – particularly when there was no movement in the midfield?

Team :  Sangram, Dhanarajan, Zeleny, Kingshuk, Surkumar, Snehasish, Pradeep(Gouranga 15′(Jagtar 80′))  Nabi, Odafa(Souvik 75′) , Ashim, Sunil.

Goals : Snehasish , Odafa

Yellow Card : Kingshuk

Odafa’s first-half goal gave Mohun Bagan a hard-earned 1-0 win against East Bengal on Sunday 20-11-2011, ensuring the team stayed within three points of iLeague leaders Dempo. Odafa scored the goal from a penalty at the 21st minute after Sunil was fouled by Okpara (something East Bengal supporters claim was not a foul – for they raised eyebrows when referees start giving right decisions going against them) inside the penalty box at the 20th minute earning Bagan a penalty.

In a largely uneventful match, until the 87th minute when power went of inside the stadium in spite of Bagan’s Secretary giving a clear indication claiming a sabotage planned – and this turned out to be exactly what he said,  striker Odafa pounced the only goal of the game in the 21st minute.

However, East Bengal’s Sushant Mathew – fortunate to get referee’s favour to stay in the ground – and was worth marching orders at least twice in the game, got a booking in the 5th minute of the game.

Alan Gow – whose play acting was not so impressive and the only award he got was a booking at the 8th minute – was consistently inconsistent throughout the game. Having these kinds of players as opponents definitely gave Bagan an edge over East Bengal.

In the 20th minute Okpara failed to foil an Odafa cross to Sunil – but the best he could do was to foul Sunil to stop him from scoring – and he did the right thing – fouled Sunil. But surprisingly referee Pratap Singh awarded a penalty in favour of Bagan. One can’t believe referees are impartial even when East Bengal is playing – though these kinds of refereeing are most welcome and will help improve standard of Indian Football – at least worthless teams might not win Federation Cups and qualify for AFC by getting referee’s favours. However, one don’t expect impartial refereeing in Kolkata league.

However Referee booked Okpara for arguing with him and not for the foul.

The first half ended with Bagan leading 1-0, though Barreto missed a sitter in the 26th minute. Had this been Barreto even three years back Bagan could have increased the margin in the 26th minute.

With Zeleny and Kingshuk playing well in the central defense – the coach and the TD decided t put in Snehasish in place of Masih from the beginning of the second half. Nabi moved to the right – Barreto and Jewel moved into central midfield while Snehasish started operating from the left. However, with Masih off – East Bengal got an edge over the central midfield.

Snehasish was totally off colour when it comes to attacking from the left wing – however for at least two occasions he defended well and foiled East Bengal moves.

With Masih off – Barreto was found working as a defensive screen – and was found more inside Bagan defense than on East Bengal defense.

Jewel was trying to capture the midfield – however he still needs to learn when to leave a ball. At least twice he failed to give the final pass to Odafa that restricted Bagan to only 1 goal.

in the 68th minute Gow play acted once again trying to earn a corner – but referee, willing not to be suspended by AIFF, did the right thing by ignoring the actor.

In the 76th minute Odafa passed a ball to Sunil – Sunil missed the easiest opportunity of the day.

Meanwhile for at least 3 times Sangram really played well and stopped East Bengal strikers from scoring a goal. Zeleny and Kingshuk were outstanding as well. Surkumar also operated well from the right and Dhanarajan tried his best to foil East Bengal attacks from the left.

With no proper defensive midfield East Bengal created some opportunities but Bagan defense managed to foil these attacks.

In the 87th minute power went off – and referee had to stop the game. However power was restored later and the game took place for 9 more minutes (however it should have been for 6 minutes instead). Barreto was booked for foul on Gow – and this means Barreto will not be available for the next game against Prayag.

However Bagan fans started celebrating since the 80th minute of the game – for it was obvious that Bagan was going to win the game. Even if East Bengal had 62% of ball possession – Bagan was better off the two teams with a strong defense.

Team : Sangram, Dhanarajan, Kingshuk, Zeleny, Surkumar, Nabi, Jewel, Masih(Snehasish), Odafa, Sunil, Barreto

Goal : Odafa (P-21′)

Yellow Card –  Jewel, Barreto

 MoM- Sangram

Picture Courtesy: Bartaman

After long 16 days Okolie Odafa started practice with the ball and he assured that he is ready for the show. But Coach Prasanta Banerjee told that Lima is uncertain in the derby. That is why the Mohun Bagan coaching staffs are trying to push natural right back Daniel Zeleni in the team as a central defender. Meanwhile in the 20th November the first ever derby will be played by Odafa Okolie. But Odafa told that everything depends up to the coaches. Beside that Barreto thinks that opponent’s Okpara, Morgan are the big factor in the 20th derby. But Odafa didn’t take any name particularly as the main or big factor.

Meanwhile, in the reply of Mohun Bagan’s email regarding AIFF Vice President Subrata Dutta’s controversial statement about the colour of derby match tickets AIFF delivered the statement that Subrata Dutta never commented like that.

An email sent to AIFF President Mr. Praful Patel from McDowell Mohun Bagan. The email is about the latest made controversy by Parent body official, some of the media, both print and electronics. As per FIFA and AIFF guidelines McDowell Mohun Bagan is organizing all the home matches and they made the colour of the match tickets green & maroon. But in the next derby match Kingfisher East Bengal supporters are angry about the colour of the tickets because it is the colour of their arch rival. In this connection AIFF Vice President Mr. Subrata Dutta also added some provoking statement regarding this matter. Therefore, McDowell Mohun Bagan have sent the mail regarding this issue to the AIFF.

It is the news regarding the ticket issue published on Bengali Daily Bartaman Patrika (dt. 14.11.11). In this mail McDowell Mohun Bagan also gave proof that it is not the first time where the organisers have made the colour of ticket as per home team’s jersy colour. The gave the example of 2010 FIFA World Cup where the colour of the match tickets same as South Afircan green and yellow colors.

Mr. Anjan Kumar Mitra, Managing Director of McDowell Mohun Bagan, wrote this mail to AIFF on behalf of McDowell Mohun Bagan. They also criticized the the role of AIFF Vice President Mr. Subrata Dutta, who seems to be provoking the East Bengal supporters for his irresponsible statement. But McDowell Mohun Bagan already organized the three home matches successfully and no mishap happened in those matches.

Meanwhile, it has been learnt that Dinesh Nair is in  the referee’s panel in the 20th Derby match.

Source: mohunbaganac.com / Bartaman

Mohun Bagan won the first match of the Kolkata Premier League against Tollygaunge Agragami by 2-1. Gouranga scored both the goals for Bagan. Okorogor scored the lone goal for Tollygaunge. The first goal was scored in the 24th minute and the second at the 34th minute. Okorogor scored in the 84th minute.

Team : Sudipta(U-19), Dhanarajan, Kingshuk, Sourav, Daljit ( Murali), Gouranga,  Pradeep (Goutam), Rakesh, Snehasish, Barreto (c) ( Jagtar), Ashim

Here is some news updates. The derby match on 20th November is the home match for McDowell Mohun Bagan and they will organize the match. In this I League McDowell Mohun Bagan is organizing all their home matches. For the I League Derby Mohun Bagan is printing 90000 tickets. Minimum value of the ticket is Rs.50.

The denomination of the tickets as follows:

VIP Lower	60/-
VIP Left/Right/ Upper	70/-
VIP Middle	100/-
Special Guest Ticket (Left side of VVIP Box	150/-
General Ticket	50/-

The Mohun Bagan members have to produce the membership card too see the match, while East Bengal members have to buy tickets to see the match. Only some VVIP tickets will be given to East Bengal. The organizers are expecting a full house in that match. The General  Secretary of Mohun Bagan Mr. Anjan Mitra  told that they earned Rs.2,00,000/- from the gate sale in the first two home matches organized by them. Before that they couldn’t get not more than Rs.5,000 to 6,000 from IFA. Mohun Bagan authority is trying to start to sell the tickets after Tollygunje  Agragami match of Sahara CFL. Beside that Mohun Bagan demaded 25% of royalty from IFA for the TV rights. But as usual IFA is not ready to pay at all as they told that the money will be spent for the youth development programme.

Mohun Bagan team is getting ready to play the Sahara CFL. They will play tomorrow against Tollygunje Agragami. Lima will not play the match of Kolkata League as he was injured in the last I League match against Churchill Brothers. Odafa also has no chance to play the match. Barreto will be used as per match situation Surkumar, Snehasis are not also enough fit to play for full 90 minutes and the derby match is knocking the door. So TD and Coach do not want to take risk before 20^th November.  Also Sunil, Nabi, Anwar, Jewel have gone to play for the Indian team.  So TD and coach have the little concern to pick the perfect XI for Sahara CFL matches.

Meanwhile, Venue of tomorrow’s  Sahara CFL match will be decided today evening. It will be either Mohun Bagan ground or Yuva Bharati Krirangan. Kick-off time : 2.15 pm. News Time channel will live telecast the match. Live update on Internet will be available at mohunbaganclub.com.