Team Mohunbagan is very much confident of getting 3 points from the first derby against Mohammedan Sporting. Mohun Bagan is now leading the Kolkata Premier League table with 10 points from 4 matches. Meanwhile, schedule dates of Mariners’ next two matches i.e. versus George and KEB has been changed. Mohun Bagan will play George Telegraph on July 2 and East Bengal on July 5 as per new schedule declared by IFA. There is a festive atmosphere in Mohun Bagan club because of the Annual Day, 29th July, just one day after the derby. Preparation is going on to make the day successful like every year but amidst the celebration, coach Kareem is very much serious of getting full 3 points and looked very focused in practice.

 There might be two changes in the first line up. Mohanraj will start in left back as Under-19. His inclusion will certainly be a big boost for Mariners. Sangram, Mohanraj, Odafe, Vasan, Habibur, James Sr., Lalramlua/James Jr., Lalkamal, Tulunga, Barreto, Lalampuia will likely be the first team for Bagan. Mohun Bagan will want to win the match and celebrate their Annual Day.

Coach Kareem is hopeful that team spirit of Mohun Bagan will get better of spirited Mohammedan who had already beaten East Bengal 3-1. Barreto is however a little cautious and is careful about the striker duo of Okero and Thio, though both of them are slighly injured and might not play full 90 minutes. The match will start at 4 pm.

It was alleged that Karim charged at the Linesman. Everybody saw Coach Karim Bencharifa charging down towards the Linesman with an open fist in the match against Port Trust on 22nd July when Barreto was ruled offside in the second half. Almost all media alleged that Karim was trying to force his decision upon the linesman and that he had instigated the crowd against the referee !!! Coach Karim Bencharifa himself explains what exactly had happened during that moment, and how grossly wrong the media men were ! Read along to know the full story !

Karim in an exclusive session with MBC.com says: " It was during the later part of the second half, when we were trying to press for the illusive goal; that Barreto, who was on the extreme left recieved a long ball from the right flank. Now the Linesman was standing just parallel to this line of incident and he immediately raised his flag as Barreto was slightly ahead of the 4 other Port Trust players singalling that Barreto was off-side. Now what he didnot notice was that  Satyajit Dutta – the Jersey No. 5 of Port Trust, who was playing as a Libero was right there before Barreto ! The linesman should have been parallel to this last line of defence ! And since he was not, he missed this fact and hence wrongly declared Barreto offside ! All TV replays confirmed this fact ! Seeing this, i rushed towards the Linesman shouting that No. 5 of Port Trust was ahead of Barreto and hence it was not an off-side ! I gesticulated the number 5 with the five fingers of my palm and hence everybody saw me running with an open fist ! How else do you expect a person to signal or gesture out the number 5 ? 

Never for once did i push the linesman nor did i try to bring his flag down!

Now the media, instead of asking me or the linesman Mr. Kashinath Sen about this incident, reported all fabricated stories about this incident blowing this whole thing out of proportion ! They even said that i tried to instigate the crowd !!! I know the rules of the game, and i know that instigating the crowd is a very violent thing to do ! Never did i do such thing, and i have my own reputation intact in this regard!

I would seriously expect that the media do realise what a strong impact (and sometimes a negative one) their reports have on the minds of football fans, and hence i would expect them to know the true story before reporting on such an incident. "
 

This graphic explains shows the schematic postioning of the Port Trust players and that of Barreto.. and especially the No.5 & the Linesman !

Now, the 15000 odd fans who were present at the Mohun Bagan saw the action and hence know what exactly had happened …. But the millions of fans across the globe, for whom the media reports are the sole source of news perhaps got a wrong image of the coach due to these reports in the media ….

We hope this report of ours does help in clearing the misconception…

Weak performance of midfield and appalling refereeing standard result in a goalless draw. Major part of the second half Port Trust players wasted time and referee however was only a spectacle and did not take any stern action against them. Gopal Das took almost 5 minutes to enter the ground when he was replacing injured Sibram Dey. Remember last year in I league, Shilton was injured and he was shown card for limping off the ground. If that is taken as the benchmark, then 3-4 Port players should have been shown the card. In one instance, linesman Kashinath Sen adjudged MB player offside whereas the player was completely onsite and Bagan could have got a chance to score from that attack.

However, Bagan midfield also displayed poor football today. Coach Kareem had James Singh in left half position but Ishfaq was missed very badly as his down the run the left flank often caused panic in opponent box as seen in last few matches. Junior James Singh was also far from  his best and often he mispassed, same can be said of Lalkamal. Last match’s hattrick scorer Tulunga also had a disappointing performance. Barreto tried his best as he came down to distribute the ball and delivered quite a few good centers which Lalampuia, Odafa missed.

Mohun Bagan dominated the match and came upon several scoring opportunities, the easiest being missed by Lalampuia off a Barreto flick inside the box. Lalampuia had open goal in front of him but could not connect the ball properly.  Within 5 minutes, Bagan missed two easy chances when Barreto’s shot was blocked by goalkeeper and Odafe shooting wide from a corner, he should have done better. From two corners, Odafa and Vasan head wide from very close range. Few minutes before half time, Barreto delivered a good center from right, however, no one was in position to connect the ball.

In 2nd half, Branco was brought in place of Lalampuia and Lalramlua replaced James. Branco tried his best but did not get much support. It would have been better if Lalampuia would have been kept in the forward along with Branco and Barreto playing from a little deep, so that he could have delivered his passes to the striking pair. Naveen Kumar played for last 10 minutes and made quite a few centers down the right flank, but unfortunately Mariners could not score. Port Trust hardly got any chance to score thanks to Man of the Match Odafe.

The quality of referring and match officiating was in question as they did not do enough to stop the time wasting tactics of Port Trust.  Mohun Bagan officials have asked for outstation referees to officiate Kolkata league matches.

One can recall that a city club, always alleged to have enjoyed CRA’s favour,  breached the U-19 rule this year by playing without U-19 for about 7 minutes but the referees couldn’t  (or didn’t) do much about it and IFA still have not taken any action against this.

Kareem at the end of the match told that “The fact that we managed to create so many chances proves that we didn’t play too badly. I have to think about the positives and I am more or less happy with performance today.”

TEAM: Sangram, Habibur, Odafe, Vasan, Suman Bose (Naveen Kumar 78th), Malsawntluanga, James Singh Sr. (Lalramluaha 46th), James Singh Jr., Lalkamal, Lalampuiya (Branco 59th), Jose Barreto.

PICTURE COURTESY: SANGBAD PRATIDIN, ACHINTYA ROY