Mohun Bagan defeated Salgaocar by 3-1 at the soil of Goa. It was the second time when Mariners meet Salgaocar in the season after Federation Cup and again Salgaocar faced a big defeat against Mariners. It is the big win for Mohun Bagan in the I-league so far. Mohun Bagan is not playing so good in the i-League but today’s win at Goa against Salgaocar will be moral boost for Bagan to excel in the later stage in the i-League.

Bhowmick made few changes in his first-xi for today’s match. Jayanta and Rahul have not played the match due to yellow card suspension. While Mohanraj played in the right back position and Dhanrajan in the left back. The two central defenders were Kingshuk and Diamondstar. In the midfield Isfaq got back his left half position and Manish, Souvick in the central midfield. Satis Kumar (Jr.) played as  right half. Chidi and Barreto were in the up front.

In the 8th minute of the match Isfaq got a ball from Satish Kumar in the left flank near central midefield and made a superb run with the ball and pushed him inside to take a curling shot to direct goal. (1-0). What a brilliant goal that is been by Mohun Bagan skipper.

By this goal the lock gate of Salgaocar defence has unlocked and Edeh Chidi took the chance of that socred his first goal and second goal for his team just 4 minutes later of the first goal. (2-0). Chidi scored the goal via header from a Mohanraj throw.

In the 18th minute of the match Chidi scored his second and third for his team. Chidi tapped the ball to beat the goal keeper from a Isfaq cross. (3-0).

After that few numbers of Salgaocar attacks went in vain when  defensive third of Mohun Bagan have played well to stop those attack.

In the second hald Shilton made couple of good save but in the 88th minute Salgaocar got a penalty and Sueoka made no mistake to score a goal. (3-1). Chidi Edeh was agjudged Man of the Match.

It is the very important three away points for mariners. They are now having 11 points from 9 matches. They will play against ONGC at Kohlapur Tuesday,  18th January.

Mohun Bagan: Shilton, Dhanrajan, Kingshuk, Diamondstar, Mohonraj, Satish( Gouranga), Manish, Souvik, Isfaq, Barreto ( Muritala), Chidi.
Salgaocar: Karanjit, Jaspal, Rino, Luciano, Barbosa( Marcus), Lamare, Farid, Tomba, Gilbart( Francis), Seuoka, Yakubu.

McDowell Mohun Bagan will meet Salgaocar Sports Club on 15th January. This will be an away match for the green and maroon brigade; the match is scheduled to be kicked off at 3.45 PM local time. After conceding two back to back defeats, McDowell Mohun Bagan, the Kolkata glamour has slightly push themselves at the back of the proceedings. Firstly it was against Viva Keral and then Chirag United Sports Club who denied the mariners from taking the dream to reality. At the current situation, McDowell Mohun Bagan is having 8 points after playing 8 matches. They are at the 9th position of the points table.

Salgaocar Sports Club on the other hand, had a decent start to their i-league campaign. Having won 4 games at a trot at the very initial phase of this i-league, they managed to secure them at the second top most position of the current league table. The last match was probably the best game for Salgaocar SC when they stunned the mighty Churchill Brothers to register a 4:3 victory. Ryuji Sueoka, the ex-Mohun Bagan recruit was the instrumental behind the victory. He is also the top scorer for Salgaocar SC with 7 strikes with his boot. They are at the second position of the league table having earned 18 points from 8 games.   

We are going to provide a detailed season wise match summaries between these two teams starting from season 1997-98. Due to lack of proper data we are unable to provide the overall records involving these teams. 

 

Some of the notable facts:

 Since 1997-98 these two teams have met 31 times. Out of these 31 games, Mohun Bagan managed to win 11 games; Salgaocar on the other hand, had the smile for 10 occasions while 9 encounters saw the score line equally shared by both the teams after schedule time.

However 1 out of these 9 ties had been broken via penalty shootout. It was in the semifinal match of Durand Cup played at Delhi.

Only once the match was adjudged through a golden goal. Alvito D’Cunha in Super Cup final scored the golden goal and this has been the only golden goal scored invloving these two teams.

 In i-league encountesr only one hat trick was made and that was by Felix Chimaokwu of Salgaocar SC. Unfortunately Salgaocar lost that match by 5 goals to 4.

In the last 14 years only one match had saw two players scoring hat tricks in a single match. It was in the group league encounter of the 32^nd edition of Federation Cup held at Cuttack last year. Mohun Bagan came with a 6:1 victory. Jose Ramirez Barreto and Muritala Ali scored those two hat tricks.

Barreto is currently leading in scorers run with 14 goals to his name.     

 

 

NFL Tour for These Two Teams

During the early era of National Football League (presently termed as i-league) these two teams showed excellent skill of football game. Within first 6 editions of NFL, these two teams combined together to have 4 titles on their way. Out of these 4 occasions, Mohun Bagan won the championship 3 times where as Salgaocar SC had 1. The reader should remember Mohun Bagan was not there in the Super League stage of the very first edition of NFL in 1996-97. In the very next year they came back strongly and won the title. Salgaocar SC on the other side won the title in 1998-99. But recently both the teams are not up to their marks. Salgaocar SC got relegated twice during the course of time. Firstly they had got relegated in the year 2005-06 and then again in 2007-08 which shows that they came back 2006-07 to get relegated once more.

Mohun Bagan after having won the NFL title for the 3^rd time in 2001-2002 had lost their way in the next few editions of NFL. 2003-04 & 2004-05 was proved to be a nightmare for the supporters of Mohun Bagan when they finished at the 9^th and 8^th position of the league table respectively. Although Mohun Bagan came very close to win the title in 2008-09, finally they had to satisfy with the status of being second best team.   

 

NFL Tour for These Two Teams

During the early era of National Football League (presently termed as i-league) these two teams showed excellent skill of football game.  Within first 6 editions of NFL, these two teams combined together to have 4 titles on their way. Out of these 4 occasions, Mohun Bagan won the championship 3 times where as Salgaocar SC had 1. The reader should remember Mohun Bagan was not there in the Super League stage of the very first edition of NFL in 1996-97. In the very next year they came back strongly and won the title. Salgaocar SC on the other side won the title in 1998-99. But recently both the teams are not up to their marks. Salgaocar SC got relegated twice during the course of time. Firstly they had got relegated in the year 2005-06 and then again in 2007-08 which shows that they came back 2006-07 to get relegated once more.

Mohun Bagan after having won the NFL title for the 3rd time in 2001-2002 had lost their way in the next few editions of NFL. 2003-04 & 2004-05 was proved to be a nightmare for the supporters of Mohun Bagan when they finished at the 9th and 8th position of the league table respectively.  Although Mohun Bagan came very close to win the title in 2008-09, finally they had to satisfy with the status of being second best team.

 

 

 The Relative Positions in the last 14 NFL/i-leagues

 

 

Current Status in the i-league

 

Bagan went down 0-1. In Kolkata in the round 8 encounter Bagan face another defeat against local outfit Chirag United. Joshimer strikes for Chirag from a counter attack in the 81st minute of the match. Rahul Kumar and Jayanta Sen were booked. Diamondstar played in the first and nothing was remarkable about him. Barreto came to field in the 2nd half but nothing changed the fortune of Bagan. Man of the match was adjudged Ex-mariners Lal Kamal Bhowmick.

It took us almost a day to think how to describe yesterday’s outcome. We have been following Facebook to Twitter, Orkut to yahoogroup mail. More we browse more we get frustrated. It’s just not a bad day in office, just not a bad luck and neither a moment to blame TD and coach. Rather it’s the time to admit that the squad, as a whole, is to at par with most of the participating teams in iLeague this year. Till a few weeks back, our main worries were our defensive combination. Now our striking force is also exposed. The green and maroon brigade is fading fast. Unfortunate but let’s acknowledge the reality first. What’s going wrong with the team which has managed to reach final of this year’s Federation Cup and to finish as second best in Kolkata Premier League? Or is it just a syndrome like Chelsea or Liverpool that has been gripping our team?
The answer is not known to the supporters and fans. Neither the newly appointed TD nor coach has any clue for an antidote. What about the Club Officials and Players’ Recruitment Panel of the Club? We don’t have the access to get any feedback from them. Let’s only hope that the sponsors would definitely think about the return on their investment and would make appropriate judgment on their own term.