Sporting clube de Goa outsmarted Mohun Bagan in today’s iLeague match. Sporting’s Keita and Kalu scored two goals while Rakesh Masih scored the lone goal for Bagan.

Sporting did well in  the following activities –

a) Playing physical games to ensure Odafa and Barreto not getting the upper hand in attackin third

b) used two wings to operate well

With Nabi out due to injury SCG got an advantage.  Moreover Odafa and Barreto were covered well. As a result SCG got control of the game through out the game. Sangram did well to save three goals in the first half.

SCG also got benefits from poor refereeing. Referee Sri Krishna failed to save Bagan’s players getting hit (surprisingly in the first leg also similar incident happened and Bagan players did not get enough protection). there were two occasions when Bagan was deprived of a penalty – once when Odafa was pulled down and the other time it was Snehasish.

Assistant Refereeing was equally poor – once the SCG goalie caught the ball outside the penalty box and this was over looked.

However, the day was of SCG – and they beat bagan is all aspects.

Mohun Bagan : Sangram, Subhasish, Kingshuk, Anwar, Nabi (Dhanarajan 28′), Manish, Masih, Zeleny (Lima 78′), Snehasish, Barreto, Odafa (Pradeep 82′).

 

 

 

Mohun Bagan win the first game of the second leg against Churchill Brothers by 3-2. Odafa scored all the three goals for Bagan while Barreto alone wasted three opportunities to score. Once Jewel’s shot and once Odafa’s shot hit the cross bar. For Bagan Sangram saved a goal at the dying moments.

Bagan had opted a 4-5-1 strategy against Churchill Brothers but defensive lapse led to conceding a goal in the 4th minute of the game. Bagan came back brilliantly and controlled the midfield. Jewel shot his the cross bar and went out in the 6th minute.

Churchill also went for counter attacks but Bagan defense did well to foil the moves. In the 18th minute Nabi moved from right and his cross found Odafa who chest trapped the ball and placed it to the left of Arindam.

In the 28th minute Odafa bull dozed into CB defense but was unlucky as his shot hit the cross bar and went out.

In the 35th minute Subhasish was booked for unknown reasons. A television replay showed Zeleny fouled a CB player but Subhasish got th booking.

In the second half Barreto came in place of Jewel and Bagan moved to 4-4-2. This worked for Bagan as well as Odafa and Barreto started testing CB defense and they collapsed from time to time.

However Kingshuk got a booked for an unnecessary foul in the 48th minute.

Barreto got two consecutive chances to score but failed. Had it been Jose Barreto 3 years back- both could have been sure goals!

In the 60th minute Manish Bhargav replaced Sur and started operating well from the right flank.

In the 73rd minute Odafa got a pass from Masih and placed the ball well to make it 2-1.

In the 76th minute Barreto was fouled in CB penalty box and Bagan was awarded with a penalty. Odafa took the shot and this time he placed it on the right of Arindam to make it 3-1.

In the 81st minute Henry reduced the margin from a defensive lapse of Bagan.

in the 86th minute injured Rakesh was replaced by Souvik.

In the 94th minute Sangram saves a power shot of Balan.

Barreto and Odafa did well to guide Bagan into the win within the next one minute .

Mohun Bagan: Sangram, Surkumar (Manish Bhargav), Kingshuk, Anwar, Nabi, Jewel (Barreto), Zeleni, Masih (Souvik), Subhasis, Snehasis, Odafa 

Before we actually look ahead, let’s go back 3 months from now. In the beginning of October last year, the team was in a turmoil. The very much hyped coach Mr. Steve Darby had submitted his resignation and the team was without the headmaster. I League was due to start and the whole club was uncertain about our future in the 2011-12 I league. The officials appointment the supporters’ favourite, our very own, Bablu da as Technical Director along with Prashanta Banerjee as the coach. Along with euphoria, there was also a bit of scepticism of the new pair of coaches in the club. However, it is needless to say that after almost four since the two have paired, they have combined well and have been complementary to each other.

The I League started well for us with 5 victories in the first 6 matches, significant among those were the victories against Mumbai FC, Churchill Brothers and East Bengal FC. The black mark during that period was the away defeat against Dempo (However the team played without any foreigners). With 15 points in 6 matches, suddenly the supporters started smelling the I league after 10 years. Then came a slide in our performance.  We could secure only 9 points from the remaining 7 matches in the I League. We lost to Prayag United and Pune FC during this period. We lost valuable 2 points in each of the Lajong, Sporting and Salgoacar matches. We were able to win only 2 matches, against HAL and Air India, during the last 7 matches of the I league. Only if could have managed 12-13 points in these 7 matches we would have sat top of the point table right now.

At the end of 1^st Leg of the I league we are in the 4^th position at 24 points, 3 points behind the leader.

Now, let’s really Look Ahead.

–          Can we be the India Champions this year ?

–          How many points are required to become the Champion ?

–          What is needed to get those points ?

These are the three basic questions we have at this moment. We would love to  leave the technical issues with the TD and Coach at this moment. We would only try to get some reasonable answers to the three questions.

–          To start with the easy one first ;  Yes, we can be the India Champions this year. We think almost all Mohun Bagan supporters across the globe believe so. Most importantly, not only the supporters, but this time the players along with TD & Coach also believes, that this time “We Can Do It”. With only 3 points behind the leader, we are very much in the race.

–          How many points are actually required to become the Champion ? This is the most tough one actually. It is easy to answer mathematically. Even if we win all matches, and the current League leader Dempo wins all (except against us), the two teams will be tied at same points and head-to-head situation. However, realistically, Dempo again may get 25-30 points in the Second leg along with Churchill, who has an extra match to play. So it seems, Churchill or Dempo should finish the league at around 52-57 points. Going by this calculation, we need minimum 55 points and 60 points would be safe enough to be champion.  Simple calculation says, to get 60 points, we need 36 points from 13 matches, which means 12 wins and to get 55 points we need 31 points from 2^nd leg which is 7 points more than what we got in 1^st leg. 

–          Now what is needed to get 31 points in this 2 leg. Answer is again very simple here. We need to win 10 matches out of 13 and draw one.  We have to win HAL, Air India, Poilan, Lajong, Prayag, East Bengal, Pune FC, Mumbai FC and Chirag Kerala matches . Besides we are also facing Dempo in Kolkata, which we should look to win.  We need to get at least 26 points from these ten matches, if not thirty. The remaining three matches are in Goa against Churchill, Sporting and Salgoacar. We have the potential to get 9 points from these three matches, but minimum requirement would be 5 points. We should win against Sporting in the away match and expect a couple of more from the other two matches. We have very fond memory of winning against Churchill in a away match under Bablu da as coach and Barreto as a player. We hope history will be repeated this year again. So 26 points in Non Goa matches and 5 points in Goa match will give us 31 points, which we believe is a reasonable and gettable target at this point of time. For this we need a fit team and hopes the key members like Kingshuk, Anwar, Nabi, Barreto, Odafa, Lima , Surkumar and Sunil stay fit and play most of the matches in the rest of the I league. Results in a football match cannot be predicted but what we can expect that all players play more than their 100% in these 13 matches and show the same urgency as they had shown in the 7^th January Derby. If this happens, we are sure we will have a lot to cheer about at the end of the tournament.

Hence, the first two matches of the 2^nd Leg in Goa against Churchill and Sporting on the 15^th and 19^th will set the tempo for the rest of the I league. We will surely miss Sunil, but hopes Barreto is fully fit and will get 180 minutes service from him. If we can return with 4 points from Goa, then we are in the race for sure.

To sign off, assuming if this year turns out to be Barreto’s last,  it will a wonderful moment for all Mohun Baganis if Barreto, as a captain, picks up the I league trophy. This will also be an apt  home coming for our great Bablu da . Actually, can’t wait for the moment to happen….. Barreto and Bablu lifting the I League with Odafa , Nabi and other dancing around and we jumping and crying in the stands.

Joy Mohun Bagan

[From the desk of Souvik Goswami, Kuwait]