Mohun Bagan beat East Bengal by 2-0 in a Sahara CFL derby match. Odafa and Manish Bhargav (u-19) scored the goals for the Mariners. Before the start of the match the local outfit Kingfisher East Bengal was well ahead than the National Club of India as per experts’ opinions. But the end of the match scoreboard made the experts eat their words. On a serious note, Sangram, the veteran goalkeeper of Mohun Bagan did not face any difficult ball from the KEB attack; this simple fact revealed clearly how the two teams performed on the day.

In the local league Mohun Bagan are well behind their arch rivals as far as the league table is concerned. But Bablu’s boys never let this bog them down in the match. In fact, the Mariners could have won by 4 goals at least, if Jewel Raja had not missed a couple of easy chances created by Odafa and Lima. However, it was the victory of Team Mohun Bagan, a result of total team effort and coach’s strategy.

There were light showers and cloudy skies in Kolkata from morning today. But Mohun Bagan’s victory brought 1000 watts light into the face of the Mohun Bagan fans. In the last round of the I-League, Mohun Bagan were beaten by Pune FC while East Bengal won the match against Air India. So Bagan were under pressure, which they overcame successfully by beating their arch rivals.

In the match TD Subrata Bhattacharjee and Coach Prasanta Banerjee depended on the newcomer u-19 from MB Academy Manish Bhargav. He scored the goal against George in the previous Sahara CFL match, on debut. Today he scored another brilliant goal – a gem of a header. We’ll request the TD and coach as the fans of Mohun Bagan to try Manish Bhargav in I League matches too. Bagan started with Mohan Raj, Kingshuk Debnath, Anwar Ali and Rahim Nabi in defence with Daniel Zelini and Rakesh Masih as defensive screen. Jewel Raja, Hudson Lima and the young Manish were in midfield, while Odafa was the lone striker.

The first ten minutes of the match was a test of temperament of sorts for both the teams; after that Bagan held the game as per their TD’s tactics, while East Bengal were gradually losing the hold on the game. In the 17th minute Jewel Raja was booked by the Uzbek referee due to a foul on Okpara. After that in 21st minute Bagan’s left back Mohonraj was injured and Dhanrajan came in place of him. Just a minute later an attack was initiated by Rahim Nabi who passed the ball to Odafa Okolie just outside of penalty box, on the right. Odafa’s deft turn took him away from 4 East Bengal defenders and his brilliant grounder was too powerful for goalkeeper Sandip Nandy to handle – he could only watch helplessly as the ball went off his hands and roll into the net. (1-0)

In the 28th minute the under-19 chap Manish Bhargav was fouled dangerously by Penn. Bagan got the free-kick from the right side of penalty box. Lima took a low, hard free-kick into the box towards the near post which was guided in by Manish Bhargav with a superb glancing header. The ball went into the net like a bullet. It was a truly brilliant goal by the young gun of McDowell Mohun Bagan. (2-0).

For the rest of the half Mohun Bagan dominated a stunned East bengal side, initiating a few more attacks through adept passing and splendid teamwork, but could not increase the lead.

In the second half KEB coach Trevor Morgan made changes after about ten minutes of further mohun Bagan domination, bringing in all three substitutes in a desperate attempt to turn the tide. Bagan TD took off Lima and brought on Snehasis Chakraborty. East Bengal tried desperately to reduce the margin, but Bagan’s defensive shape was immaculate, and Sangram was virtually idle! In the 75th minute there was a quick counter-attack and Odafa passed the ball to an unmarked Jewel. Jewel had only the goalkeeper to beat but instead of placing the ball to one corner of the net, he tried to chip the ball over the head of the advancing keeper, only to chip it well over the bar!

In conclusion everybody must admit that Mohun Bagan were by far the superior team on the field today. The strategy and tactics of the coaching staff were quite brilliant, and the team executed those instructions perfectly. Each Mohun Bagan player played at the top of his game today to help Bagan to bring a memorable victory for them. MohunBaganClub.com is congratulating the entire Mohun Bagan team for this outstanding performance. We wish them all the best for the rest of the season, specially in the I League.

Mohun Bagan: Sangram (21); Nabi (19), Kingshuk (4), Anwar (5), Mohanraj (26) [Dhanrajan (6)], Manish Bhargav (34), Zeleni (2), Masih (20), Jewel (23) [Barreto (10)], Lima (27) [Snehasis (25)], Odafa (9). 

Score: Mohun Bagan – 2  (Odafa 22′; Manish 28′)

             East Bengal – 0

 Picture Courtesy: Sangbad Pratidin          

Fans share their views on Bagan’s poor result last night. They have shared their views over yahoo group and social networking sites.

Debdeep Chatterjee: worst defense……. average midfield n surely injuries…….

Soham Kundu :One thing is to be said about our team… that is we got too much Odafa centric right from the beginning of season…. If this goes on then the future of our team can very well be predicted now…. earlier it used to Barreto and now it is Odafa… this cannot go on… football is a team game… not a one man show… Odafa is not Messi…. even Messi cannot take charge of Argentina single handedly….. we have to change this mindset of becoming  player centric…. plus we do not have anything called defence…. Also it is high time we start to look for other goalkeepers.. Sangram is out of his prime…

 Anirban Ghosh : ‎1) Average age high.. 2) Speed low.. 3) Fittness low.. 4) No specialist right back (apart from Surkumar).. 5) No quality right half.. 6) Lima is better than Snehasis, but not a good foreign recruit.. 7) No foreigner in deep defense.. 8) No specialist blocker.. 9) Weak central midfiled.. 10) Lack of ball supply to Odafa.. 11) No 2nd striker.. 12) Defenders need to learn the basics.. 13) Goalkeeping is poor.. 14) No reserve bench..

Souvik Goswami:  Very disappointing !!!!

Kaushik Dutta: I won’t say poor performance. Poor student will fare according to his standard. So result is as per the quality of players we have. We cannot expect superlative performance from a poor team.

Devadeep Ghosh :

Saikat Bose :

1) Gouranga should be sent to Dance Bangla Dance, he deserves no place in the team.

2) Sangram and the entire defence apart from Nabi should be sent to Big Boss house. If they stay together  co-ordination can improve.

3) Sangram must go back and learn the goal keeping basics . When to step out, when to be on the goal line ; how to tackle straight ball at chest height

4) Also we have to utilise our left wing more effectively. Between Nabi and Lima, I think we have a efficient left wing which we are not utilising. If Nabi goes up, nobody is to cover him. Lima was in very good position yesterday but was not getting any final pass.

Mohun Bagan’s bench for the 13th match against Pune FC did not have a stopper and did not have a striker in the reserve bench. Undoubtedly the squad that went to Pune was not the best one. however that wasn’t enough – a hapless defense ensured Bagan concede two goals – the first one by Jeje thanks to Sangram and Anwar – and second by Lester thanks to Pradeep. The score card will say Pune FC 2-1 Mohun Bagan. What it will not say is that Odafa Okolie failed to get even one proper through and did not get any support from the central midfield and right flank! The only support he got to an extend was from Hudson Lima.

The performance was disappointing no doubt- but it raised a concern – with East Bengal match being the next one in the season – is Bagan defense ready to meet them? It has been matches where Kingshuk and Anwar played together with Sangram behind them – and till now Anwar and Sangram have no idea about which ball to cover and which one to leave for others to cover.

In one such case Lester crossed the ball to near post from left – and Jeje headed the ball past sangram into the goal. First Sangram was not in the right position – second he failed to step out and clear the ball  – third he felt Anwar will clear the same. For Anwar he gave a judgement – and left the ball for Sangram ot clear – end result Jeje had no problem in scoring the equaliser.

The second goal for Pune happened from the right when Douhou through found Kaite – and his cross to the far post found Lester who got past Pradeep and shot the ball into the net to make it 2-1 for Pune.

There were at least 3 more occasions when Pune failed to increase the margin – and twice it was open goal miss!

Odafa scored the lone goal for Bagan and the defense failed to defend it just because the defenders had no clue about each other’s position.

Pune was undoubtedly the better of the two teams – and the scoreline was justified.

Bagan will now meet East Bengal – and East Bengal coach can be very happy to see the shape of the Bagan defense. One wonders if the inclusion of the man Bagan trusts most can change this hapless team to a winning one? Yes – Jose Barreto was badly missed in this game today!