A convincing victory against Salgaocar SC has transformed the entire ambiance. From a tensed and gloomy weekend has suddenly transformed into a bright yet focused weekdays for the team Mohun Bagan – no wonder why the dressing room is now looking like a very happy family.
‘Do-or-die’- has become the motto of the last match in group league stage for Team Mohun Bagan for last three years. Every time they got success in that stage and this year is no exception as they outplayed Salgaocar in the last match by 6-1 to reach to the semifinal of 32nd Federation Cup.

Team Mohun Bagan had a swimming session today at Cuttack Swimming Club. The players have enjoyed every moment of the session in the blue water of swimming pool. Stanley Rozario told that a very good team never been failed for so long and Mohun Bagan got the much needed momentum in the last match and thrashed Salgaocar, despite a lot of criticism from media and opponent coach Kareem Bencherifa.

Another practice session has been scheduled tomorrow and going by the early indication, Edeh Chidi might not be in first-XI once again. Diamondstar will be played as defensive medio. Infact in the last match he was really impressive in that position. However the final strategy will be uncovered only on 30^th Sept afternoon. Bagan is very much cofident to face I League champion Dempo. This will be clash of Titans. In 2008, Mohun Bagan lifted Federation Cup by beating Dempo by 1-0, socred by Barreto.

Will the history repeat once again?

A win could have helped Bagan gain the top spot of the group.
But a goal less draw now makes it absolutely necessary to win the last match against Salgaokar FC – scheduled this Sunday 26th September.

An excellent game in the Federation Cup this year. No goals, but tremendous entertainment and some interesting tactical elements too.

Bagan lined up with three stoppers, one side back, one side half, one central  midfielder and four strikers against Mumbai Fc here today.

Stanley Rosario opted for Ishfaq Ahmed in a position he is not familier with, while Gouranga Dutta, the genuine right half had to wait for 70 minutes to get into the ground.

Sagram Mandi was at the left back position while Biswajit Saha – the regular in the Kolkata League was there in the bench.

Diamondstar – the team’s think tank yet to know his actual playing position replaced Jose Barreto with less than 5 minutes reamining for the game while Jayanta Sen missed out!

The key to the game was all about who could control the tempo. The two sides had completely different approaches – Bagan played quick balls to the wingers who looked to run at the Mumbai FC full-backs, and they played at an incredibly high tempo as they dominated the opening period.

Bagan had a host of efforts on goal in the first 15 minutes but found Peter Siddique in excellent form – he made multiple outstanding saves to deny Bagan.

Mumbai Fc struggled to maintain possession of the ball early on, despite their three central midfielders, and therefore were unable to slow the pace of the game. Henry hit a couple of hopeless long balls too easy for Shilton.

Mumbai FC were defending with two solid banks of four, but Bagan rarely looked to get their midfielders or full-backs into attacking positions early on, so they were often faced with a 3 v 8 situation when trying to break down the Mumbai FC defence.

Eventually Bagan had to drop the pressure slightly after their frantic opening to the game, and Mumbai Fc gradually grew into the contest – the more they had possession, the more their shape had an interesting look to it.

Mohun Bagan : Shilton Pal, Sagram Mandi, Karan Atwal, Sk. Azim, Dhanarajan R, Ishfaq Ahmed (Gouranga Dutta 72), Manish Maithani , Barreto (Diamondstar 86), Snehasish Chakrabarty (Ashim Biswas 90), Chidi Edeh , Muritala Ali.

Mumbai FC: Ishant Debnath, Evans Quao, Peter Siddiqui, Goutam Debnath, Nishant Mehra, Bungo Singh (Noel Wilson, 51st), Dene Pereira, Pradeep Mohanraj (PC Lalwmpuia, 92nd), Hiralal Chetri (C Malasawm Kima, 75th), Nicolas Rodrigues, Nna Ezeh Henry.

Referee: C R Srikrishna (Tamil Nadu)

 

Today’s Match – Fact Sheet At A Glance
Opponent  team	Mumbai FC
Date	24-Sep-10
Stage	Group
Venue	Cuttack
Kick off time	6:45 PM
No. of goal Mohun Bagan scored	0
Opponent scored	0
Number of yellow card shown to MB Players	1(Dhanarajan)
Number of red cards shown to MB players	0
Average age of 1st 11	24.8yrs
Average age of the squad (registered for Fed cup)	24.9 yrs
1st half Score	0 – 0
Style of formation	4 – 4 – 2
Substitutions
1	Gauranga in place of Isfaq (72 mt)
2	Diamondstar in place of Barreto (88 mt)
3	Ashim in place of Snehasis (89 mt)

 

Mohun Bagan will play against Mumbai FC tomorrow in their second match of 32nd AIFF Federation Cup. Barabati Stadium is the concern of the every team now because of its nature of not rolling the ball in due to water clogging. But Mohun Bagan coach Stanly Rozario has more thought in his mind, that is how to get a big win against Mumbai FC get advantage in the group.

The first-XI of yesterday’s game had a  swimming session at Cuttack Club under team manager and doctor and rest of the eam had their practice session in the local police ground under Coaches. In the swimming pool session there was a swimming competition between the players and Shilton Paul emerged as a winner in the competition. The competition was arranged by Jose Barreto for test of the fitness. Shilton proved once again that he is in good condition here in the swimming pool as well.

The whole team is now focused and they want to beat Mumbai FC by a healthy margin. Salgaokar will be played against Air India and their coach Kareem Bencherifa must be looking for a big win against Air India also to be in the better place in the group before meet Mohun Bagan on Sunday 26th. Mohun Bagan will play later tomorrow in the evening while Salgaokar vs Air India will be held at after-noon session. So before coming to the ground Mariners will fix their target of margin, However ,victory is must and now the goal difference is the key factor also as well because Salgaokar is already up ahead due to vitcory by 2-0 against Mumbai FC in the last match.

Edeh Chidi may not be in the first team due to his injury. It has been cured almost 90%. But Edeh Chidi himself expressed that he doesn’t want to play tomorrow’s match because of wet and heavy ground, it may harm more to the injury . He also told that match against Salgaokar is more important, so he wants to play from that match.

Stanly Rozario indicated today that the team may be played in 3-5-2 combination because Kingshuk Debnath, the right back will not be available for today’s match due to his red card, so Dhanrajan, Karan Atawaland Sagram Mandi will be the three central defender and in the midfield their may be inclusion of Jayanta Sen.  If Azim can play in the right back then it can be 4-4-2 as well. Everything depends upon situation of the game.

The match will start from 6.45pm (IST) at Barabati Stadium, Cuttack. The live update will be available in this website from the start to end of the match.

 

 

Picture courtesy: ABP