Bagan went down 0-2 against Kingfisher East Bengal. Robin Singh scored for the local club once in each half. In both the cases its Bagan defense and goalkeeper Shilton Pal to be blamed!

But, moreover it is a big question why Bagan went down against Kingfisher East Bengal. Here are some big questions that were raised by the fans and supporters of Mohun Bagan –

1. Why was a completely new set of players there in the defense? The defense was comprised of Rahul, Kingshuk, Harpreet and Dhanarajan and shilton behind them. For last two years Deepak was leading the defense, with Sangram providing direction to the team while under the bar. Who is the leader of the defenders Mr Rosario ?

2. Why both Jayanta and Manish were there in the team while both Snehasish and Ishfaq were there in the bench? Bagan had how many moves from the let flank before Snehasish came in ?

3. Both Chidi and Muritala are dangerous when and only when they get ball inside the box. with Okhpara cuting off the supply line for last 4 matches- what was the alternate plan Mr. Rosario? Shouldn’t one of Snehasish or Ishfaq (who is not 100% match fit) have been there in the frst half?

4. 15 corners and we failed to score a single goal – this is happening for long – have you fixed it Mr. Rosario ?

5. Bagan’s inability to retain possession and dictate the play has proved the critical factor in both legs. This is happening game after game – what did you do to fix it Mr. Rosario?

6. Gourango Datta, who provided the team much neeeded consolidation during Fed Cup campaign, was not even given a chance in this crucial darby. Should we call it a good strategy Mr. Coach?

An alarming lack of ball retention, tons of miss-passes  and capability to shut out a match has bitten them where it hurts, No more excuses of poor refereeing Mr. Rosario – you win matches when you score and you don’t get defeated when you don’t concede goals. One is surprised to see how Jose Barreto took poor shots or how he loses his tempers against Okhpara. Mr. Rosario – this has happened in last few matches when Okhpara is playing against Barreto – did you suggest a Barreto to change in strategy so that he can get past Okhpara ? One wonders! We are now moving into iLeague – and the fans are not very optimistic with your game plans!

Teams:

KEB: Jayanta, Okpara, Saikat, Soumik, Gurwinder, Mehtab, Penn, Sanju( Alvito 87′), Sushant, Robin( Budhiram 70′), Tolgey ( Ravinder 66′).

MB: Shilton, Rahul, Kingsukh, Harpreet, Jayanta ( Snehasish), Manish, Dhanarajan (Isfaq ), Surabuddin, Muritala (Ashim), Chidi, Barreto.

Today’s match at a glance

Opponent team	Kingfisher East Bengal
Date	26-Nov-10
Venue	Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata
Kick off time	4:30 PM
No. of goal Mohun Bagan scored	0
Opponent scored	2
Number of yellow card shown to MB Players	1 (Barreto)
Number of red cards shown to MB players	0
Average age of 1st XI	25.1 yrs
Average age of the squad (registered for Fed cup)	23.3 yrs
1st half Score	0 – 1
Style of formation	4 – 4 – 2
Substitutions
1	Snehasis in place of Jayanta(48mt)
2	Ishfaq in place of Dhanarajan(68mt)
3	Ashim in place of Muritala (60mt.)

 

 

 

In a stunning encounter, Muritala scored twice in injury time to register a 2 -1 victory for the Mariners against Peerless. It’s really going to be a tough ask to write a match report for anyone who has just watched today’s encounter at the Mohun Bagan Ground. Ever after the long whistle blown by the referee, spectators remained on their toes as they couldn’t believe what they had witnessed in the last 10 minutes of the match. The great game of football proves once again – ‘Nothing is impossible provided you fight for it’.

After a galore of miss-passes and wastage of dozens of set pieces, pretty unimpressive Mariners suddenly woke up in the dying minutes and in the process ace striker Muritala scored 2 stunning goals to earn 3 points and keep the team in the championship race. Coach Stanley continued to experiment with the first XI as he rested Snehasis, Kaushik, Surabuddin and Dhanarajan and brought in Biswajit, Gouranga, David and Chiddi.  The other reason is for  experiementation is  that  all the rested players were shown yellow card in the earlier macthes. Mariners were quickly into their stride and earned a few corners within first 10 minutes. They came close to open the score card in the 11^th minute when the last defender of Peerless narrowly prevented the ball from crossing the goal line. Mohun Bagan tried to establish a grip on the game but failed to score even with taking advantage of having an extra midfield player of the stature of Barreto.
But Peerless stunned Mohun Bagan by taking their lead via Binod Bauri when they converted a corner in the injury time of the first half. (0-1) The Mariners went to lemon break trailing by a goal.
Mohun Bagan tried to retaliate and continued to dominate the game right from the beginning of the second half. It was a do-or-die situation for Stanley as he opted for 2 back to back substitutions in the 50^th minute (Surabuddin and Snehasis replacing David and Gouranga respectively) and the last one in the 64^th minute (Manish in place of Jayanta) and went into an all out attacking mode. The game turned out to be a battle of resilience of the Peerless goalkeeper and the desperate Mohun Bagan attacking force. Mohun Bagan failed to capitalize as many as 10 corners and this might be a serious concern for coach Stanley in view of forthcoming I-League.
Frustration was mounting both inside the ground as well as at the stands. It was almost looking like a hopeless situation when the match went into the injury time of 6 additional minutes. And suddenly it was a magical display of Muritala as he equalized from Chiddi’s centre (1-1).
A draw couldn’t be a consolation for the Mariners and the ace striker knew it well. In the last minute of injury time, Mohun Bagan earned a corner and that was the last opportunity. Snehasis floated the ball in from the corner, Muritala connected the ball with his head and stunned the crowd!! (2-1). 3 points were finally earned for the Mariners, which would now keep them very much in the championship race.

Team:

Mohun Bagan: Shilton, Biswajit, Harpreet, Karan, David (Surabuddin), Jayanta ( Manish), Nazimuddin, Gouranga ( Snehasish), Chidi, Barreto, Muritala.

 

 Today’s match – fact sheet at a glance

Opponent team	Kolkata Port Trust
Date	22-Nov-10
Venue	MB Ground, Kolkata
Kick off time	2:30 PM
No. of goal Mohun Bagan scored	2 [Mutitala (90+1′, 90+6′]
Opponent scored	1
Number of yellow card shown to MB Players	0
Number of red cards shown to MB players	0
Average age of 1st XI	24.3 yrs
Average age of the squad (registered for Fed cup)	23.3 yrs
1st half Score	0 – 1
Style of formation	4 – 4 – 2
Substitutions
1	Surabuddin in place of David(50mt)
2	Shegasis in place of Gouranga(50mt)
3	Manish in place of Jayanta(64mt)

 Picture Courtesy : Bartaman

Mohun Bagan had a comfortable win against Port Trust and continues to run for the title race in Sahara Kolkata Premier League 2010. Mohun Bagan are onto 34 points after a victory over Port Trust today.

Stanley Rosario made few changes from the side. Jose Barreto was there from the beginning as Chidi Edeh was suspended for double booking. Snehasish was there from the beginning as well. Harpreet replaced Mandi in defense. Bagan kept to their usual shape, a 4-4-2 that sometimes looks like a 4-4-1-1 because of the position of Jose Barreto .
Bagan started creating pressure on Port much before the game had even settled down, when Barreto’s low cross for Muritala was enough to break Port defense.  However Muritala fell short of the ball. Barreto scored the first goal just before end of the first half. He flicked the ball into the net from a Kingshuk centre (1-0). The Port defense was mesmerized and did not even move as Barreto got past his two markers.
Bagan changed its strategy in the second half and was attacking more. But two players were badly injured in this half. First it was Muritala who collided with the Port Goalie and had his hand injured. He required a medical attention before coming back into the ground.
Later Surabuddin was seriously fouled and had to be replaced.
In the 59th minute David replaced Surabuddin and Ashim replaced Snehasish.
Jayanta’s centralish position led more attacks after this change and in the 74th minute Kingshuk scored the second goal for Bagan. Bagan earned a corner and Kingshuk header made it 2-0.
Soon, Souvik replaced Barreto. His fresh legs kept of testing Port defense. During this session Muritala was in a scoring position in two occasions. However, Muritala had to wait for 90th minute to score a brilliant goal- as he got a pass from souvik and showed his worth by turning and kicking the ball into the goal (3-0).
Port were reasonably impressive despite rarely looking like taking anything from the game.

Kingshuk Debnath was declared as Man of the Match for brilliant performance.

 

Mohun Bagan: Shilton, Kingshuk, Karan, Harpreet, Dhanarajan, Satish, Jayanta, Surabuddin (U-19) (David 59′), Snehasish (Ashim 59′), Muritala, Barreto (Souvik 75′).

Today’s match at a glance

Opponent team	Kolkata Port Trust
Date	19-Nov-10
Venue	MB Ground, Kolkata
Kick off time	2:30 PM
No. of goal Mohun Bagan scored	3 [Barreto, Kingsuk,Muritala]
Opponent scored	0
Number of yellow card shown to MB Players	0
Number of red cards shown to MB players	0
Average age of 1st XI	24.5 yrs
Average age of the squad (registered for Fed cup)	23.3 yrs
1st half Score	1 – 0
Style of formation	4 – 4 – 2
Substitutions
1	Ashim in place of Snehasis(59mt)
2	David in place of Surabuddin(59mt)
3	Souvik in place of Barreto(75mt)

 

Man of the Match – Kingsuk Debnath