Mohun Bagan beat Chirag United 2-1 today in their 18th round I league match, Baichung scored both the goals for Mariners. Mohun Bagan could not play well in first half but regained control after lemon break. Mohun Bagan will play next againt JCT on March 28th in Ludhiana. Mohun Bagan now has 36 points from 18 matches.

Mohun Bagan beat Chirag United 2-1 today in their 18th round I league match, Baichung scored both the goals for Mariners. Mohun Bagan could not play well in first half but regained control after lemon break.

 In the 1st minute itself, Mohun Bagan got a free kick near the half line. Marcos took the shot that went inside box which Baichung headed towards Barreto but it was cleared for safety by Chirag defence. The two side backs of Mohun Bagan, Habibur and Mohanraj were clearly off-form today and fleet-footed Snehasish and Gouranga looked to pile pressure down the flanks and often delivered good crosses. In 7th minute, Chirag got the first chance when Gouranga crossed from right side and Snehasish could not head the ball properly. Within 2 minutes, from counter attack, Manju made a down the middle run and gave a through pass to Baichung but Arnab Mandal made a timely tackle to avert danger. Chirag had greater possession of ball till 30th minute but Dipak had a great match in defence and foiled many Chirag attacks. Sangram though did not have to make any good saves. In 30th minute, Barreto took a center from right side which Baichung tried to take a shot but it was cleared by defence, ball went to Ishfaq in left flank who floated the ball towards goal, Louis headed the ball and it ballooned up and went to Rakesh who was standing at the edge of the box. Rakesh let fly a pile driver which was going in but unluckily for Mariners it hit a defender and deflected off for corner. Marcos took the corner which came to Tulunga who harmlessly lobbed the ball that went straight to goalkeeper. Within 3 minutes, Habibur took a center from right side, Tulunga back headed the ball towards Barreto but he could not get position to take the shot inside box, Ishfaq passed the ball to Marcos but he took a very poor shot that went straight to goalkeeper. In an attempt to clear the ball, Louis almost conceded an own goal. Chirag got a good chance in 38th minute. Gouranga was again in thick of action when his left footed center went towards Saini but Manju made a brilliant clearance. Mohun Bagan scored the first goal of the match in 44th minute. Marcos and Ishfaq took the short corner and off Marcos center, Baichung headed the ball (see picture below) which deflected off Arnab Mandal’s leg and went inside goal.  Mariners came back strongly in the match after the initial domination of proceedings by Chirag and went into lemon break 1-0 up.

                                                  BAICHUNG SCORING THE FIRST GOAL FOR MOHUN BAGAN

After the change of ends, Snehasish made a good run but his center was cleared by Dipak for safety in 50th minute. In 56th minute, from Baichung the ball went to Tulunga via Marcos in right side but his center was nicely intercepted by Chirag defence. Bhaichung Bhutia then sent in a throughball for Barreto who made an angular run from right to left and his shot just missed target, going over crossbar. In 68th minute, Marcos took a corner that was headed out by Louis, the loose ball went to Mohanraj outside box, his thumping shot was saved by Ravikanta stretching to left side. In the next minute, Gouranga made a solo effort by dribbling past 2 players but his shot went wide. In 73rd minute, Barreto released the ball for Baichung who took the ball inside box and from an acute angle tried to place the ball in far corner, but goalkeeper made a good save diving towards right. In 76th minute, Chirag missed the easiest chance of the match when Mohanraj made a grave error and his clearance went straight to Sankar Oraon, who shot the ball soaring over the bar with goalkeeper at his mercy. Chirag equalized in 78th minute, when from a long ball, Sankar backheaded towards Snehasish, Habibur failed to clear the ball and Snehasish took a left footed shot that beat goalkeeper and went to far corner of post making the scoreline 1-1. Mohun Bagan made it 2-1 in the next minute itself. They got a free kick when Barreto was fouled. Marcos again took a neat free kick that swerved and went to Baichung who headed the ball to perfection and the goalkeeper had absolutely no chance whatsoever to save the ball, score became 2-1 in favor of Mohun Bagan. In 85th minute, Baichung scored another goal, this time the goal was even better than the last one, he spot jumped over his defender and headed the ball in off a Rakesh center but linesman, for reason better known to him, raised the flag and disallowed a certain goal. Television replay suggested that it was a clear goal. In injury time, Chirag got their last chance when they got a direct free kick just outside the box, but Gouranga’s shot hit the wall.

                                                        

 ISHFAQ FOULED BY GOUTAM DEBNATH

Mohun Bagan thus emerged winners and now has 36 points from 18 matches. Churchill is leading the table with 42 points from 20 matches. Mohun Bagan will next play against JCT on March 28th. They will have to win their remaining 4 matches and hope that Churchill lose point either against Air India or Mohammedan Sporting. Most importantly, none of Mohun Bagan players have got any booking today.

Sangram looked confident throughout the match and did not have to make any good save. In defence, Dipak was in supreme form today in stopper position, well supported by Manju. Mohanraj and Habibur both were shaky today and made far too many mistakes. Habibur can be partly blamed for the goal which Mariners conceded. Mohanraj though delivered few good long throws and delivered few good crosses but while defending he hardly could contain Gouranga. In first half, midfield lacked confidence and there were hardly any attacks till 30th minute, though in the second half Marcos and Masih played well. Tulunga made many mistakes before lemon break and was giving too many back passes but agains after change of ends he gathered momentum and made some good runs down the flank causing panic in Chirag defence. Ishfaq tried a lot but was not in his best of form today, but you cannot rule him out, given the amount of hard work he puts. Though many critics had criticized Baichung for attending a reality show, he showed his class by scoring two goals and scored another goal which was by mistake ruled out by linesman. It should now be clear to them that with the experience that Baichung has, missing practice once a week for 2 hours does not have any impact on his game. Recovering from injury, Barreto showed his class when he attempted a left footed shot that just missed target in 2nd half.

Talking to us after match, Karim said, "Chirag is definitely a good team, it is surprising that they are at the bottom side of table, they deserve a position somewhere in the middle. They played well today. Another important factor is that, we had lost 4 matches in a row, our confidence was down, so in first half we could not play to our potential. We made many mistakes in this half. However, we came back strongly in 2nd half and created chances, scored and won the match. We badly wanted to win this match. This will bring confidence back to our team. Now we have to win the rest of the matches. Still we are in the title race. We have seen many times in various leagues that a team can make mistake near the final round and many upset can happen. We will just have to concentrate on our game and win the remaining 4 matches."

TEAM: Sangram, Habibur (Rahul Kumar 81), Manju, Dipak, Mohanraj, Tulunga (James Singh Jr. 90+2), Masih, Marcos, Ishfaq, Barreto (Lalkamal 86), Baichung.

 

Mohun Bagan will meet Chirag tomorrow in an important I league match to be played in Barasat Stadium from 6.30 pm. Mohun Bagan has lost their last two I league matches and they are in a must win situation in their 5 remaining matches of I league. Not only will Mariners have to win the matches but will have to hope that Churchill lose points against either Air India or Mohammedan. Jose Barreto will be back in team after missing 2 AFC cup matches due to injury.

Mohun Bagan had their practice session in afternoon today. In practice the first team was as follows: Sangram, Mohanraj, Dipak, Manju, Habibur, Ishfaq, Masih, Marcos, Tulunga, Baichung and Barreto. After practice, coach Karim Bencharifa said, "We are not thinking of what other teams are doing. We will have to win the next 5 matches. This season so far has been quite successful for Mohun Bagan and has been the most successful season after 2002 and also for any Kolkata clubs after 2005." Rahul Kumar said, "Still many upsets can happen, we will have to concentrate on our game and win the next five matches, then we will see where we finish."

McDowell Mohun Bagan has had a fair share of ups and downs on the ONGC I-League 2008-09. They started off at a very depressing note with loses and draws at the initial stages and in fact were able to only muster three points from the first five games.  Then team started performing and the dream run resulted in McDowell Mohun Bagan climbing to the top spot in the league table with ten wins in a row. The press and the football pundits sat up and took notice of the dream run and marked them as potential I-League contender. Then the graph started to climb down with back-to-back defeats, first in the hands of their archrival, Kingfisher East Bengal at the YBK and then against Churchill Brothers in Panaji, Goa.

                                                   

As of date, three teams, two from Goa, Churchill Brothers (42 points from 20 matches), Sporting Clube the Goa (39 points from 20 matches) and McDowell Mohun Bagan, Kolkata (33 points from 17 matches) are in the title hunt.  As is evident, McDowell Mohun Bagan has played three matches less than the other two Goan teams because of AFC Cup commitment. Tomorrow they take on a local outfit Chirag United who are languishing in the tenth spot of the table.

Today, on March 22nd, 2008 Churchill Brothers took on another Kolkata outfit, Kingfisher East Bengal in Goa and came out victorious 3-1. This means that they have just two matches left, first an away match against Air India at Mumbai on 28th March’08 and their last a relatively “soft” home match against another Kolkata outfit, Mohammedan Sporting, who are hovering in the relegation zone, the date to be announced later by AIFF.

 

                                                   

So for McDowell Mohun Bagan to win the I-League 2008-09 two things must need to happen. First from here on, they need to win all their matches without any let-up. Secondly, at least for once, Churchill and especially, their goal-scoring machine and powerhouse Odafa Okolie needs to have a really bad day in office. At least a draw against Bimal Ghosh’s Air India would suffice. Otherwise, as things stands, they are nearly home and dry and beyond any other’s reach because of a very superior goal difference of +26 vis-à-vis Sporting Goa’s +6 and McDowell Mohun Bagan’s +6.

REPORT: RANA BOSE AND SHILADITYA MITRA
PICTURE: SOUMYADEB SINHA

 

 

We lost against the Jordanian Club team 1-2 in the AFC Cup round-robin match. Although we went ahead within 13 minute through Rakesh Masih’s goal but the joy was short lived. They equalised within 3 minute and were leading 2-1 at the break. What exactly went wrong.

 1. Many are saying that Dempo have won their AFC Cup matches and we could not. It is a matter of prioritising and the priorities of Dempo may not match up with that of Mohun Bagan. As far as DSC is concerned, I-League 2008 is over for them. They are just playing for pride and going through the motions of finishing off the I-League. Mohun Bagan on the other hand cannot afford to lose focus on their quest for the I-League at this stage as all three teams CB, SCG and MB are seperated only by goal difference (assuming we win both our two back-log matches).

2. Mohun Bagan’s coach knows his team’s potential and Group D of AFC Cup (our Group) is the toughest and is being referred to as the "Group of Death" by the knowledgeable. The quality of players that we have cannot take us far in the AFC Cup..   

3. It goes without saying that of all the top I-League teams that are playing, our bench strength is a little weak, given that most of the players are junior and not have much experience. These bench sitters walk into the First XI (sometimes), not because of their potential or the Coach’s choice but because of compulsion in fielding them necessitated by injury, card problem or fatigue to the first choice players.

4. Our routine pattern of play (because of lack of versatility amongst players) is quickly spotted by the opponent coach. For example, a throw-in deep inside the opponent’s half will always be taken by Peter Odafe from the right or Habibur/Mohanraj from the left. It will be a deep throw with the expectation that either Rakesh Masih or Marcos will flick-head it inside the danger zone for any of our player to put it inside the goal. Why does Karim not change this style for something different. The reason is, he does not have a single quality ball player in the side who can play a decisive 1-2 when it matters and essay a final pass to be shot home.

5. Another important reason for our lack of maintaining the lead is the failure of the midfield trio. For quality midfield play it is essential that there has to be a "holding midfielder" who will be the playmaker. Marcos started off this season doing just that but because of lack of support from the co-midfielders he is now playing the role of a "blocker".  A lot of expectation was on Lalkamal but somehow he could not perform to his potential. He really is a superb player and we hope that next season he stay in Mohun Bagan and perform the way he performed against Bayern Munich.

6. Both our forwards Bhaichung and Barreto are ageing and play within a limited periphery of the field. If they had been 5 years younger then the whole scenario would have changed as they would have played more box-to-box football causing numerical advantage to the side. We are taking nothing away from the effort that the two players give and this year also we have seen some amazing goals from them, they need more support from midfield which they are not getting on all the matches.

7. Another important point that has to be noted is that the maximum distance between upfront players and midfielders in the side theoritically should not be more than 10-12 yards to create panic amongst opponent players and effect movements. Unfortunately, recently I am noticing that this distance between the defenders and midfielders and midfielders to upfront players reach more than 15 yards. What is happening is that opponents get enough free space to consolidate their play. The reasons for this deficiency are (a) lack of imagination amongst the midfielders, (b) fatigue and staleness causing failure to reach to the desired point in the field and (c) lack of confidence and self-belief.

8. For (7) I cannot blame the coach for the simple reason that the players were recruited first by the Officials and then Karim Bencherifa was appointed the coach. If he is there for 2010 and if funds permit we will perhaps have quality players of his choice.

9. Football is a very simple game where the emphasis by any side is to always have numerical superiority over its opponent be it inside the opponent’s box or in their own. This is where we are being outsmarted.

Guest Columnist : RANA BOSE (MEMBER, MOHUN BAGAN ATHLETIC CLUB)