Mohun Bagan beat Mahindra United 2-1 to reach Durand Cup final.
Chiddi scored both the goals for Mohun Bagan. Interestingly, in the last round match of I league last year, Mohun Bagan lost to Mahindra 1-2 and Chiddi had scored both the goals for winning team. This season, Mohun Bagan officials has roped in Chiddi and it has paid rich dividends for the club as including today's brace, he has so far scored 4 goals in Durand Cup and had scored 2 goals in IFA Shield. 16 times Champion Mohun Bagan has so far scored 9 goals in this year's edition of Durand Cup, out of which 7 has been scored by the striking pair of Barreto and Chiddi. It should be remembered that this is just the 3rd match of this pair and they are already striking gold. Karim rightly said after IFA Shield final, "If only we had one positive striker, those chances that we created would have been surely converted."
Today L. Tamba and Ravanan were assigned the job of marking Barreto. In one instance, when Mahindra had a corner, Barreto was standing near the center circle with Ravanan standing beside him. Tamba was there a little far away from the Brazilian. Such was the panic of coach David Booth, instead of looking at his team's setpiece movement, he was staring towards Barreto and started shouting, "Tamba, mark Barreto."
Karim Bencharifa played a very tactical game today and he had assigned Snehasish a big role of stopping the runs of Steven Dias and the plan worked quite well in first half, but from mid second half Snehasish slowed down a bit and was rightly substituted by Santa Kumar. In 1st minute, Snehasish got a ball from Mohanraj and gave a miss pass and the ball went out towards his team's reserve bench. Coach Karim said jokingly to Snehasish, "I am not playing Snehasish, so don't give pass to me." After this, there was no looking back for him and he really had a great first half.
Another player who has so far been performing consistently is James Singh. Mohun Bagan supporters were panicking when they came to know that Tomba Singh's name cannot be registered. Coach Karim, cool as a cucumber had said, "Don't worry, I have got other players also. In fact, I have players ready for all positions." The way James is playing since IFA Shield, coach will really have a nightmare on whom to chose in right half. Regarding this choice, positive minded Karim said, "I always prefer to have many good players in one position rather than having none to chose from. Leave the choice on me, it is my job as a coach. I will always think what is good for the team and will act accordingly. Why only Tomba and James, I have many other players who can play in right half like Subhojit etc."
The combination of James and Surkumar in right side has already started creating magic. James prefers to go down the flank and cross the ball to perfection while Surkumar has the ability to cut in and has two options of either taking a shot or delivering a center. Rakesh and Dipak have also started combining well and are rock solid in defence.
Captain Sangram is also leading from the front and has saved at least 2-3 sure goals in the three matches in Durand Cup so far.
Jose Barreto who is always eager to play and support his team, was not fully fit before IFA Shield, but he was willing to play, but coach made the right decision and did not register his name for IFA Shield. Even he substituted him at the right time in JCT match. If Barreto would have played with pain and got his injury aggravated, it could have resulted in muscle tear and Mohun Bagan certainly would not have got his service for about three months, which would have been a heavy blow for the team.
The magician Barreto is still in supreme form and like the first year he played for Mariners, he is still performing and leading by example. He is creating move, has already developed a great combination with Chiddi, scoring goals, even falling back and helping defence. What more can be expected from the person whom Mohun Bagan supporters worship as God. Karim once said, "There is one advantage of having a player like Barreto in your team. You know that you have one extra captain in your team."
Coming back to the match, in 3rd minute, Chiddi took a nice shot from almost 0 degree angle which deflected off a Mahindra player for corner. In next minute, Paresh pushed the ball towards unmarked Rafi who missed an easy chance when his shot went straight to Sangram. In 8th minute, Snehasish cut in from left side, gave a pass to Micky, whose shot hit a defender and went to James, but his shot lacked direction. In 17th minute, Sushil got a pass from midfield, nicely dribbled past one player and took a shot that was saved by Sangram.
Mohun Bagan took the lead in 19th minute, Micky snatched the ball in midfield, gave a forward pass to James in right flank, James floated the ball which Barreto headed towards Chiddi, who nicely latched on to the ball and cracked his shot into the upper net, making the scoreline 1-0 in favor of Mohun Bagan.
The best move of the half came in 32nd minute, Rakesh tackled Rafi and gave the ball to James, who gave a long pass to Barreto. Barreto moved to the right flank to take the ball and from there took a center. Chiddi jumped over his marker but his head just went over crossbar.
Mahindra started 2nd half in a positive note when in 47th minute from Denzel's cross, Sushil headed the ball from close distance but Sangram had no problem in collecting the ball. In 5th minute, Micky made a brilliant solo run and passed the ball to Chiddi whose cross went to Snehasish inside box, but unfortunately he jumped but could not reach the ball.
Mahindra got few direct free kicks outside the box. In 56th minute, Steven's shot was cleared by Sangram, Paresh took a shot which was brilliantly headed out by Chiddi. In 59th minute, Sangram made a great save like last match. Steven curled the ball like Beckham and no one was standing in first post, but Sangram brilliantly dived to his right and fisted the ball saving a certain goal. Mahindra then brought in Mijin in place of Pradip in 60th minute.
In 64th minute, Chiddi showed good ball control in midfield, shielding the ball and holding Tamba, then turned and passed the ball to Subho, whose shot hit a Mahindra defender and came to James whose snap shot missed target.
Mahindra equalized in 70th minute. Steven's free kick was back headed by Rafi which went over Sangram into goal.
The pace of the match increased a lot in 2nd half with both teams attacking. In 75th minute, Subho Kumar-James combination resulted in a cross from right side which was headed down by Chiddi for Barreto and he tried a side volley but just could not connect the ball properly. In 76th minute, James took a free kick from right side, everybody including goalkeeper Subhashish was anticipating a cross but instead the intelligement midfielder took the shot directly towards goal, but Subhasish dived to his left and fisted the ball for safety.
In 77th minute, Karim brought in Santa Kumar in place of exhausted Snehasish.
Mohun Bagan again took the lead soon after. James took a corner that went to Chiddi in top box. The ball came to chest height, Chiddi nicely adjusted and headed the ball that beat Subhasish, a defender tried to clear the ball from goalline, but such was the power of the head, that the ball hit him and went to goal. In next minute, again James took a cross from right side that curled and almost went to goal, Subhashish had no clue whatsoever.
Mohun Bagan had a lucky escape in 82nd minute, when from substitute Ajayan's center, Sushil back headed the ball in the same way Rafi scored the equalizer, the ball beat sangram, took a drop and went out. This was perhaps the only mistake of Sangram in this tournament so far, he charged out of goal line and almost conceded a goal.
Mohun Bagan coach brought in Kuluthungan and Zenith replacing Barreto and James Singh in injury time. The final score read 2-1 in favor of Mohun Bagan.
The final will be the repeat of IFA Shield where Mohun Bagan lost to Churchill Brothers in the final after missing a number of easy chances to score.
After match, Chiddi said, "I have not done anything special. My job is to score goals and I have done exactly that. We played a team game and we are in finals. Churchill is a good team and we will have to play well to lift Durand Cup."
Coach Karim echoed the same comments as he said, "Churchill is a good team, we will have to continue with our good form. I am happy with the way team played today. We are scoring goals, that is a very good sign for us. We will have to keep the good work going."
TEAM: Sangram (captain), Mohanraj, Dipak, Rakesh, Surkumar, Snehasish (Santa Kumar 77'), Micky, Subho Kumar, James Singh (Zenith 90+4), Chiddi, Barreto (Kuluthungan 90+2).
