Mohun Bagan tent was damaged this evening when a tree had fallen on the tent. This happened this evening when there was a thunderstorm and wind blowing at around 120 km per hour. Later on it was found that the General Secretary’s office and Ground Secretary’s offices were damaged badly. Few rare photographs also got damaged. However the Ground Secretary has confirmed that the tent is insured and will be repaired soon.

In the season 1999-2000, they played 22 games in the National Football League, won only one and lost thirteen games, stood 12th between 12 teams and got relegated. I ncidentally Mohun Bagan won the National football League that year. But they came back – and the next ruled Indian Football in the next decade.
Quick status –
Federation Cup – 1
Derand Cup – 1
National Football League / iLeague – 5
A relegation and what a come back. but what’s behind this amazing success ? There have been allegations that they have got benefits from the match officials – Churchill Brothers, Mohun Bagan, Salgaokar and even Kingfisher East Bengal- who comes second in this allegation – were at the receiving end. But there are more than just getting benefits – for Dempo is the only Indian Club to play AFC Cup in 2008.

If Dempo can- why can’t Mohun Bagan?Why is Bagan’s performance declining at the domestic level?

1. Player retention – While Bagan has new faces in the midfield and defense almost every year – Dempo seldom has new sign-ins for the first XI. The players are playing with each other for years – and they know exactly the positions of their team mates off and with the ball. That helped them a lot as a team.

There has been much talk of replacements of  agin players like Deepak, Marcos, Bhainchung or even Barreto. But Dempo has the same set of players for years – but there is a great dependency and their experience brought in success.  Marcos and Deepak were missed after they were asked to go- and Bagan is yet to find a better replacement of Barreto.

Mohun Bagan officials must understand that each department – Goalkeeping, Defense, Midfield, Forward line – needs a leader. With Odafa in the team- Bagan still has a leader in the attacking third – but Surkumar and Nabi failed to guide Anwar and Kingshuk in the central defense. Deepak’s ability was missed badly.

Moreover there was no leader in the midfield – a Douglus or a Marcos was missed for last couple of years. Zewel, Masih, Snehasish , Lima have not shown their leadership capability.

Bagan officials must understand that by just changing the players or signing up new players does not help. A player takes time to settle down in a new environment- and once he settles down the officials bid him goodbye. This is not at all helping Bagan.

Moreover selection of foreign players are going against Bagan. Bagan had recruited Diamondstar, Storey, Muritala, Zeleny but none of them were retained in the team – and moreover none were eligible to play in any other Indian team. On the other hand like Sueoka, Beto, Chidi  were not retained!

Not only retaining Ranty for years, Dempo also had recruited players like Koko Sakibo, Densill Theobald, Yusuke Kato that added values to the team.

2. Fitness – Dempo has  lot of aged players like Climax Lawrence, Clifford Miranda, Sameer Naik, Mahesh Gawli, Selwyn Fernandes – but they tend to remain fit through out the season. Bagan had been facing fitness problems for last 3 years and the coaches hardly got a full team for the whole season. The players are running out of breath at the end of the game just because their pre-season conditioning was not done properly.

3. Use of Youth – Rowilson Rodrigues, Rowilson Rodrigues, Creson Antao,Godwin Franco, Joaquim Abranches were recruited young and have been playing very well in Dempo. Bagan failed to use young talents – Manish Maithani remains injured, Manish Vargav, Souvik Chakraborty does not get chances in crutial games. Only Rakesh, Kingshuk and Shilton are young talents who are regular but have fitness problems as well.

4. No heavy burden of expectation – When a player is recruited for Mohun Bagan – he is expected to perform in each and every game. Bagan has not got success in recent past and as a result expectations are very high for Asia’s one of the biggest fan based club. Players of Dempo definitely miss the fan followers but at the same time there not no burden of expectations. They don’t go down in the ground keeping in mind that a loss will lead to a broken windscreen of their cars!

The Bagan officials must sit with the players in the beginning of the season and talk about the expectations. They must clearly communicate to the members and fans of Mohun Bagan. A visionary management must be the shield to the players and help the players play with ease. They must not vitiate the ambinace of the dressing room that leads to a tension among the team members. Performance bonuses and insentives must be considered and announced by the club officials.

Dempo has been successful – Pune FC is quickly catching up. Though already late – Bagan officials still have time to rectify themselves. Make a team for 3 years- and success will be there for sure.

 

 

Mohun Bagan split points with Salgaokar. Bagan was leading 1-0 in the first half as Odafa got past Salgaokar defense and scored in the 23rd minute. But Karim’s dressing room coaching helped Salgaokar to come back in the game from beginning of second half. Ishfaq sprint in the 46th minute earned Salgaokar the goal.

Team Mohun Bagan would move to Goa on 12th April for the last “away” game of the season – against Salgaocar. Odafa Okolie – who’s nursing ankle injury stayed away from the practice on 11th April, but is part of the team. The ace striker badly needs some medical attention but the team requires his service for the remaining three games of the season. Jewel, Masih, Bhargav, Chettry are injured as well. The team for Goa includes Shilton, Sangram, Kingshuk, Surkumar, Masih, Dhanarajan, Subhasish, Snehasish, Manish Bhargav, Souvik, Nabi, Sunil, Odafa, Barreto, Ashim, Lima, Jewel and Pradeep,

Rakesh Masih can partner Kingshuk in the defense in absence of Anwar. If he can’t then Subhasish will be the make shift stopper. Nabi and Sur are expected to be the two backs against Salgaokar. Lima and Ashim might operate from the two flanks with Barreto and Jewel as the central midfielders. Sunil can be the liaison between Odafa and the midfield.

Meanwhile IFA can put Bagan’s last game of the season against Prayag United at Siliguri. There is still a possibility that Bagan wins the Kolkata Premiere League if they win at least a point against Prayag and East Bengal go down against Mohammedan Sporting. However Bagan fans and supporters won’t be able to make it to Siliguri in flocks to cheer the team thanks to the whims of IFA.

Jose Barreto and Sunil Chettry showed their worth against Shillong Lajong. Alas – its too late and Bagan – 3 weeks back- iLeague contender – is now out of the race. Had Barreto and Sunil showed their worth in last 3 games- Bagan could have still be chasing the topper Dempo!

Bagan scored 6 goals today. Nabi scored the first one from a through by Barreto. Nabi got the control over the ball and made no mistake in scoring a neat goal. Barreto showed his worth and had another through for Sunil who made no mistake in scoring the second goal for Bagan.

Odafa then scored the 3rd goal by placing the ball on the left of the goalie who was expecting the ball to his right. Later Odafa bulldozed into ajong box and dribbled past 7 players to score his second.

Sunil was fouled in ajong box and Barreto converted the penalty to a goal.

Sunil scored again later by swarving the ball into the net from the edge of th box.

 

However Subhash Singh scored when Bagan defense failed to clear a ball.

Mohun Bagan is going to play their 24th match of the I-League 2011-12 tomorrow against Shillong Lajong FC at the YBK. The kick-off is going to be 3:30 pm. After losing 6 points in the last three matches, our I League hopes are almost buried. The expectation of the millions of supporters around the globe from Mohun Bagan is to play some good football in the remaining four matches and salvage some pride by finishing among the top four team in the overall standings.

 We would love to see the men in green and maroon to play their hearts out tomorrow to prove that whatever has happened in this season was a mere unfortunate journey and they were actually capable to achieve more.

Mohun Bagan successfully hold HAL 0-0. Bagan did not give HAL chance to score. Shilton was brilliant in saving goal. Rakesh Masih did well in stopping Hamza as well. Kingshuk was also good in not allowing HAL to score. Surkumar and Nabi ensured HAL does not operate from both flanks. Nabi also did not commit any handball today. Barreto also did well. He was found playing for full 90 minutes – a great feat indeed. Pradeep , Jewel, Odafa, Sunil were good in stopping HAL to operate from the middle third. Lima also did well – couple of his passes were actually to his team members. Ashim was also good – so good that he was taken out before the first half ended. The only exception was Manish Bhargav – the kid was the only one who did take shots on target at HAL goal.

Mohun Bagan failed to control the game till end against Dempo and ended with a 2-2 draw. Bagan is practically out of iLeague title race – and the decision to stay away from IFA Shield so that iLeague can be targeted – backfired. Key player – Odaf Okolie was injured against Dempo – and is nursing injury. Odafa would be out of the HAL game on friday, 6th April. This means – Bagan will have to focus more on sunil, Ashim and Barreto.

Bagan might have to add Manish Bhargav in the reserve bench – his absence was felt in last 20 mins of the game against Dempo. Bagan might also have Manish Maithani from the beginning. Hudson Lima can also be tested against this weak team.

 

HAL can have a formation of 1-4-3-2 with one stopper behind the four defenders and three midfielders with two strikers. Bagan can be of formation 4-4-2.

Probable teams:

HAL – Amar Deb, Chandandeep Singh, Ramesh, Gautam Debnath, Liliyan Kennath/Femi Joseph, Rohit Chand, Malemngamba Meetei, Ajit Kumar Singh, Bijoy Das/Sudheesh Muttath,  Jagaba Amaba, Vinod Kumar

Mohun Bagan –  Sangram, Nabi, Anwar, Kingshuk, Surkumar, Lima, Barreto, Manish, Jewel, Sunil, Ashim

Mohun Bagan split points with Dempo as the game ended 2-2. Credit goes to Subhasish Roy Choudhury of Dempo and Gujarat referee Vishu. Incidentally Dinesh Nair is also a referee from Gujarat! Subhasish did well to stop at least 4 goals of Odafa – while Referee did well to guard Dempo well. He did not award a penalty to Bagan – overlooked fouls and just booked Debabrata when he should have got a marching order.

Odafa could have scored 6 goals in the first half- but had to remain happy with only 2 goals. This includes a penalty shot missed by him. In the second half one of his shots was stopped by Mahesh Gowli’s hands – but referee overlooks the handball. In fact he overlooked the first penalty awarded – it was Assistant referee who insisted on the penalty and the referee and to buy it.

Ranty scored the frst goal for Dempo when Nabi handled the ball inside the box.

Later Odafa scored 2 goals and both were from his individual brilliance. In the secod half Koko scored a goal for Dempo due to mistakes by Bagan defence. 

Debabrata Roy was at his worst and had badly injured Jewel by hittin him twice. Debabrata is known for his indecent sportsmanship and today’s incidence was no different. He shoul have got a marching order and AIFF should have suspnded him for at least two matches. But referee was more interested in Dempo earning a point at least. Dempo perhaps would be ieague champion at the end of the season – and would represent India. But the teams represending India in AFC seem to be doing so by getting advantages from referees. No wonder Indi remains as a sleeping giant of World Football !