The Indian national-level football season kicks off with the Federation Cup from September 21. The 32nd edition of the Federation Cup will be played in 5 venues, Silchar (Assam), Mapusa (Goa), Cuttack (Orissa), Ludhiana (Punjab), and Vasco (Goa).
Earlier, the first 2 venues will host the qualifying round matches. The final round, starting from quarter-final, will be hosted by the remaining venues. Also, Cuttack will be hosting the semi-final and final matches. The matches in Cuttack will be played in Barabati Stadium, famous for hosting international cricket matches.

There are 4 groups with 4 teams in each group. The group toppers will qualify for the semi-final round.

They find themselves in Group D along with Salgaocar, Mumbai FC, and qualifier from Group A. Federation Cup is definitely Mohun Bagan’s favourite tournament. They have won the tournament for the record number of 13 times, way ahead of East Bengal, who has won 5 times. Mohun Bagan plays their first match against the qualifying team on Wednesday, September 22.

 

 

 

Qualifying Round

Group A – Silchar

M1- September 15, 2010: Oil India Vs Mohammedan Sporting

M2- September 16, 2010: NISA Vs Shillong Lajong FC

Group A Final – September 18, 2010: M1 winner Vs M2 winner

M1- September 14, 2010: Vasco Vs Sesa Football Academy

M2- September 15, 2010: Sporting Clube de Goa Vs Malabar United

Group B Final – September 17, 2010: M1 winner Vs M2 winner

September 21, 2010: East Bengal Vs Air India

September 21, 2010: HAL Vs Pune FC

September 23, 2010: Air India Vs Pune FC

September 23, 2010: HAL Vs East Bengal

September 25, 2010: East Bengal Vs Pune FC

September 25, 2010: HAL Vs Air India

September 21, 2010: Group B Qualifier Vs Chirag United

September 21, 2010: Churchill Brothers Vs Viva Kerala

September 23, 2010: Viva Kerala Vs Chirag United

September 23, 2010: Group B Qualifier Vs Churchill Brothers

September 25, 2010: Group B Qualifier Vs Viva Kerala

September 25, 2010: Chirag United Vs Churchill Brothers

September 21, 2010: Dempo Vs ONGC

September 21, 2010: JCT Vs India XI

September 23, 2010: Dempo Vs India XI

September 23, 2010: ONGC Vs JCT

September 25, 2010: India XI Vs ONGC

September 25, 2010: JCT Vs Dempo

September 22, 2010: Mohun Bagan Vs Group A Qualifier

September 22, 2010: Salgaocar Vs Mumbai FC

September 24, 2010: Group A Qualifier Vs Salgaocar

September 24, 2010: Mohun Bagan Vs Mumbai FC

September 26, 2010: Mohun Bagan Vs Salgaocar

September 26, 2010: Group A Qualifier Vs Mumbai FC

Semifinal – Cuttack

September 29, 2010: Group A Winner Vs Group B Winner

September 30, 2010: Group C Winner Vs Group D Winner

October 02, 2010

4-0! Whoa, that’s the scoreline of the match between Mohun Bagan vs Tollygunj Agragami, where the result goes in favour of Mohun Bagan. Muritala Ali scored the first from a penalty in added time of first half. In the second half, Barreto showed his magic, scored the second goal in the 68th minute. Third goal came in 89th minute from a brilliant move of Chiddi and Barreto, and the fourth goal scored by Edeh Chiddi at the last minute of the match.

There was a light drizzle before starting of the match and Mohun Bagan Ground stand was absolutely poured by the Mohun Bagan members, supporters. Who says Kolkata Football has died?

First goal was scored from a penalty, which was given due to hand ball by aTollygunj player in the penalty box. Muritala Ali, the debutant for Bagan didn’t make any mistake to score from the penalty in the injury time of the first half (1-0). Mariners did not play up to the mark in the first half. Maybe it is the first competitive match of the season and team has not been tested so far in the season.

The second half did not see any remarkable improvement in the game for the Mariners. Barreto was trying alone but others were pretty ordinary at that time. Tollygunj Agragami is the team whose doesn’t have permanent practice ground in the maidan, however, they were fighting heavily against giant Mohun Bagan at that point of time. Even though they have not scored any goal, still they managed to overtake the defence of Mohun Bagan couple of times.Sangram was wary under the goal so no damage done by the Agragami players.

In the 66th minute, Edeh Chiddi came in the place of  debutant Muritala Ali, who didn’t had a great game. After that, Mariners attacks become more sharp and Barreto – Chiddi combo made some good movement that kept Tollygunj defence too busy. It was in the 69th minute when talismanic striker Jose Barreto got the ball and took a long ranger from 25 yards and scored a magnifient goal (2-0). It was a sign of his fitness and the supporters got some relief from that goal.

In the 72nd minute, coach Stanly Rozario made another change while Jayanta left the field and Manish Maithani took his place. Satish Kumar, the ex-HAL player came in the place of Ashim Biswas in 81st minute of the match. Ashim’s performance was most ordinary in the field today. He has to improve more to be in to the first-XI regularly.

In the 89th minute of the match, Barreto made a great run down the right flank from a pass of Chiddi, and entered in to the opposition’s box. He goes past Louis and takes a shot which beat goalkeeper. The ball went inside the goal by deflecting Sundarlal Hembram’s leg, who tried to clear the ball, but it went to the back of the net. The referee awarded the goal to Barreto (3-0).

In the 93rd minute it was Chiddi magic. After getting the ball from Barreto in the left flank, Chiddi beat two defenders, and netted the ball from a acute angle (4-0).

Jose Barreto was declared man of the match.

In the post match press conference Chief Coach Stanly Rozario was looking very happy winning by big margin. He said, "First match of the season always tough, despite of that team has won by capitalising team spirit. I am happy by performance of all the players. Man of the match Barreto told that he did practice of taking long ranger shot got the sweet result today, still his team has to improve in many places.

Mohun Bagan: Sangram, Kingshuk, Rahul Kumar, Diamondstar, Dhanarajan, Jayanta (72′-Manish), Ishfaq, Surabuddin (U-19), Ashim (81′-Satish Kumar jr.), Muritala (66′-Chidi), Barreto.

Tollygunj Agragami: Raju Ganguly (75′- Abdul Ghani Sheikh), Louis , Sundarlal Hembrem, Manas Das, Raj Ghosh, Surajit Mondal, Kallol Pal ( 80′-Dinesh Swar), Sukuruddin Laskar, Crispin Chetri, Faiz Alam, Arup Sinha.

Referee: Barun Saha

Match Stats:

Opponent team	Tollygunje Agragami
No. of goal scored	4
Opponent scored	0
Number of yellow card shown to MB Players	1 (Surabuddin 70′)
Number of red cards shown to MB players	0
Average age of 1st 11	26.8yrs
Average age of the squad (registered for CFL till now)	23.6 yrs
1st half Score	1 – 0
Style of formation	4 – 3 – 3
Substitutions
1	Satish Kr inplace of Asim Biswas
2	Chiddi in place of Muritala
3	Manish Maithani in place of Jayanta Sen
Man of the match	Barreto

 

Tollygunj Agragami is the name of the team with whom Mohun Bagan will start its campaign of the season 2010-11. As we know Tollygunj Agragami was renowned giant killer in Kolkata Maidan but mariners are ready to show their best on the ground from the first match straightway. Mohun Bagan is the last three times champion and overall 29th times champion of Kolkata League and they would like to make it 4th consecutive time and overall 30th time as well.

The team’s pratice was held today in the morning and there was a match between 1st team and 2nd team where 1st team beat 2nd team by the goals of Surabuddin and Muritala. It is good for the team that number of players in the team have the scoring ability, when the strikers will not be able to score the others must do it.

Coach Stanly Rozario told that he is very happy with residential camp which was completed successfully without any injury and they would like to set momentum from the start of the season by winning the match in healty manner. He said to the reporters on the eve of of the first encounter of his team, "It’s always good if you start off with a convincing win.”

As many as six players are likely to make debut tomorrow for mariners against Agragami. They are Kinshuk Debnath, Rahul Kumar, Okwy Diamondstar (PAO), Surabuddin (u-19), Dhanrajan and Muritala. Apart from them in the first XI others are likely to be Goalkeeper Sangram Mukherjee, Jayanta Sen, Ishfaq Ahmed, Jose Barreto and Ashim Das. Edeh Chiddi, who is yet to convalesce from viral fever, is unlikely to feature in starting -XI.

 

Picture Courtesy: Bartaman