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News in detail |
MARINERS BEAT MAHINDRA 2-0 AND REACH SEMI FINALS; PROBABLE FIXTURE FOR I LEAGUE
Guwahati ,
26-Dec, 2009 : Mohun Bagan beat Mahindra United 2-0 to reach semi finals of the Federation Cup. They were in a must win situation today in their last group league match like the last edition of Fed Cup. However, last year it was 2-1 victory over another team from Mumbai, Air India and this year the scoreline was more convincing at 2-0. Mohun Bagan could have scored few more goals today.
We have seen from last year that Mohun Bagan is playing better football in 2nd half compared to 1st and today was no exception. This shows the great fitness level of the team and coach Karim is to be given credit for this.
Karim Bencharifa had been the most consistent and successful coach in Indian football in the last two years when Mohun Bagan finished amongst top 2 teams in 6 tournaments, being Champion in 3 and finishing runners up in 3. Many players of the current Indian Senior team and Indian U-23 team has been nurtured by him like Robert, Gourmangi, Rakesh Masih, Manish etc. but still in the recently concluded award function organized by FPAI, David Booth, who won no tournament last year for Mumbai FC, was most shockingly selected Best Coach. So today's victory was some sort of personal victory for Karim when he outclassed David Booth's team.
Today Mohun Bagan made two changes in their starting lineup, Dipak Mandal back in the team replacing Mandi and Ishfaq coming in place of injured Snehasish.
Mahindra made the first attack of the match when Sushil's shot from outside box went over crossbar. In the next minute, Barreto delivered a cross to Ishfaq whose shot went straight to Subhasish. In 4th minute, Muritala's shot took a deflection and came to Sushil who took another shot which was again off target.
In the next minute, Barreto controlled the ball nicely, passed the ball to Sueoka, who in turn gave a pass to James but his cross just went out of reach of Chiddi.
James, who has been in good form since start of the season, continued his good run today. He delivered quite a few good crosses and combined well with Surkumar in the right flank.
In 10th minute, Pradip took a nice long ranger, swerving free kick that Sangram managed to fist the ball out of danger. In 11th minute, from Ishfaq's pass, Barreto first attempted a shot by his right foot but then seeing his marker suddenly turned and promptly took a left footed shot that went straight to Subhasish, brilliant play indeed by the Brazilian.
Mahindra then created some pressure for about 10 minutes but Mohun Bagan defence played really well and Mahindra players could manage only shots from outside the box, they were denied any clear look at the goal. Sangram and defenders cleared the set piece movements that Mahindra got and won almost all the aerial battles.
In 17th minute, from corner, Justin took a long shot that Sangram had no problem to collect. In 20th minute, Mahindra made a good move down the right flank. Pradip gave a forward pass to Steven, from whose pass, Muritala took a shot from edge of the box that went over crossbar.
Mohun Bagan was unlucky when in 25th minute James' swerving corner beat Subhashish and hit crossbar. From return ball, from Ishfaq's pass, Barreto nicely controlled the ball with 3 Mahindra players with him but unfortunately his left footed shot lacked direction and went out.
In the next minute, Mariners made another great move when Chiddi gave a neat pass to Ishfaq in left flank who sent a low cross to Barreto. Barreto tried to take a first time shot with his left foot but completely miscued the shot.
In 34th minute, Pradip gave a long ball to Muritala, but Surkumar brilliantly covered him and headed the ball back to Sangram. In 36th minute, Sushil took a very good shot from outside box and Sangram made a brilliant save diving to his left. In the next minute, there was a lucky escape for Mariners goal when from Mijin's cross Muritala's flick went just over crossbar.
Ishfaq had a very good match today and he almost scored in the 39th minute when getting a through pass from Chiddi, he ran with the ball, entered penalty box and everybody was expecting a cross towards Barreto, but Ishfaq himself took a shot that Subhashish made a stunning save.
Mohun Bagan got a penalty in the 41st minute. Sueoka gave a delicate forward pass to Barreto who was pushed from behind by Ravanan inside penalty box. Barreto himself took the spot kick and he scored by placing the ball to left of the goalkeeper, Subhasish had absolutely no chance to save the ball.
Just before half time, Chiddi got two loose balls at the edge of the box, but both times his shot lacked direction.
The first half saw both teams attacking though Mariners could have scored at least 3 goals.
After the change of ends, Mohun Bagan started controlling the game and dominated most of the half by playing lot of short passes. In 48th minute, James-Surkumar-Chiddi played pass amongst themselves and Sueoka got the ball in right flank, but his cross which was meant for Barreto was cleared by Mahindra defence.
Mohun Bagan scored their 2nd goal in 49th minute. Ishfaq snatched the ball nicely in midfield, passed the ball to overlapping Biswajit, who delivered a low cross towards Chiddi. Chiddi controlled the ball nicely and pushed the ball to back of the net past Subhasish.
Mohun Bagan got two back-to-back corners but nothing resulted out of the setpiece movements.
In 56th minute, Rakesh Masih missed the easiest chance of the match when from Sueoka's pinpoint corner kick, Rakesh headed the ball over from handshaking distance of the goal.
The Asian recruit for Mohun Bagan, Sueoka had a good game. Not only did he give good support to Chiddi and Barreto but also did good snatching in midfield. As always, Barreto and Chiddi complemented each other nicely throughout the match.
Mohun Bagan then played a very tactical game and relied mainly on counter attack, knowing very well that Mahindra will go all out for attack. In 72nd minute, getting a pass from Barreto, Sueoka could have taken a shot himself, but he preferred to play a wall pass with Barreto and the ball went out of goalline.
Dipak who came back from injury (Gobinda Raj has to be given credit for this as he worked hard to make Dipak fit over the last few days) was in his prime form along with Azim in central defence. Around the 75th minute mark, Dipak twice cleared the ball by heading out for corner.
In defence, the two side backs also were in good form as they prevented the Mahindra players from delivering crosses towards their strikers.
In the fag end of the match, Mahindra made few good moves but Sangram was unbeatable today. In 83rd minute, Justin's header was saved by Sangram diving to his right, though James was covering the goal standing in goalline. The subsequent corner taken by Steven was again fisted out by captain Sangram.
From counter attack in 85th minute, Barreto got a ball in midfield, hold the ball for few seconds, then made a sudden turn and gave a pass to Chiddi from whose pass Ishfaq's shot went to Subhasish.
In 87th minute, Sangram had no problem to collect Rafi's header from Paresh's cross. In injury time, Muritala made a solo effort when he dribbled past Dipak and took a shot that was again saved by diving Sangram.
Coach Karim made two changes in injury time bringing on Tomba and Souvik in place of James and Barreto.
Mariners were very disciplined today in the field. Today four players of Mahindra United were booked for foul while none of the Mohun Bagan players were cautioned.
After match, coach Karim said, "Last two days, I had a lot of talk with the players about our last year's performance in Federation Cup and how we got out of difficult situation. Today every player fought hard and I am very happy with team's performance."
"Mohun Bagan team now has great team spirit. See Snehasish, he is injured, out of the tournament, yet he is still here, cheering the players, yesterday was present during practice and was even bringing back the ball from out of play. Such is the spirit of the team now", Karim continued.
When asked whether this was the best match of Mohun Bagan in this year's Federation Cup, he said, "I think, we played well in all three matches. Thanks to Mahindra coach and players they tried to play football and attacked and tried scoring against us, whereas in the last match Chirag in the first half mainly adopted negative tactics and was not trying to play any football. We played well in the 2nd half against Chirag, though we definitely played better today."
About crowd support, he commented, "Crowd here is always with us. Many supporters have come from Kolkata to cheer us. Even the staffs of the hotel are supporting us and the way they are giving personal service to the players is really amazing."
About his opponents in semifinal, his comment was, "Our job is to play good football and win the semi final. We really don't care who our opponents are in the semi finals."
Mohun Bagan will play their semi final match on December 31st.
Meanwhile, the probable matches of Mohun Bagan from Round 14 to Round 26 in I league are as follows:
March 6 vs Chirag (Kolkata).
March 10 vs Pune FC (Kolkata).
March 15 vs JCT (Ludhiana).
March 20 vs Viva (Calicut).
March 27 vs Lajong (Kolkata).
April 2 vs East Bengal (Kolkata).
April 10 vs Salgaokar (Kolkata).
April 17 vs Air India (Kolkata).
April 24 vs Mahindra United (Kolkata).
April 28 vs Dempo (Kolkata).
May 7 vs Churchill (Goa).
May 12 vs Sporting de Goa (Kolkata).
The date of the last round match versus Mumbai FC in Mumbai will be decided later on.
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| Match Highlights |
| Result - Mohun Bagan :
2 - 0 : Mahindra |
| Team |
Sangram Mukherjee ,
Lukram James Singh,
Ishfaq Ahmed (CAPTAIN),
Ryuji Sueoka,
Surkumar Singh,
Biswajit Saha,
Deepak Mondal,
Rakesh Masih,
Seikh Azim,
Chidi Edeh,
Jose Ramirez Barreto,
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| Replacements |
Lukram James Singh
, ( out - 92),
Jose Ramirez Barreto
, ( out - 93),
Tomba Singh
, ( in - 92),
Souvik Chakraborty
, ( in - 93), |
| MB Goals |
Jose Ramirez Barreto ( 41 min ), Chidi Edeh ( 49 min ), |
| Opp Goals |
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| MB Cards |
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| MB MoM |
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