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MARINERS WIN KOLKATA LEAGUE FOR THE 29TH TIME; CHIDI SCORES THE WINNING GOAL
Kolkata ,
25-May, 2010 : Mohun Bagan today beat Chirag United 1-0 to lift Kolkata League for the 29th time, this is the third successive year that Mariners have won this tournament. Chidi scored the winning goal in the 67th minute of the match.
In the last few days, a section of media was saying that Chirag's victory will help Bengal football. It is not clear to us in what way Mohun Bagan's victory will not help Bengal football. If we check the Mohun Bagan squad of this season, there were 14 Bengali players, out of which 9 players played lot of matches for the team. Even today 9 Bengali players were there in the 20-member Mohun Bagan team whereas Chirag had 13 players in their 20-member team. So, this is a ridiculous conclusion that Mohun Bagan don't give chance to Bengali players. It should be remembered that Mohun Bagan runs a couple of academies and lot of players who have passed out from there are playing for various reputed clubs of Indian football.
Mohun Bagan was denied a clear penalty in the first half and also Souvik had scored a goal from Chidi's head which referee unfortunately disallowed. Chidi scored the winning goal from penalty after Sueoka was tripped from behind by Du inside penalty box. After the goal, Chirag players started chasing the referee and kicked and punched him. The whole Chirag team should be suspended by IFA for this action. Ultimately, after being beaten by the Chirag players, referee showed red card to Du and Denson Devdas.
Mohun Bagan completely outplayed Chirag in the first half. Mohun Bagan made a very positive start as in the very first minute, Chidi made a solo effort but ball deflected out. Mariners launched a series of attack and from Sueoka's cross, ball came to Ishfaq who had open space in front of him, but his hurriedly taken shot deflected out for corner. In the very next minute, from Sueoka's pass, Surkumar took an inswinging cross which hit crossbar.
In the 17th minute, Barreto made a nice tackle in the midfield, took the ball away from Denson and then made a down the middle run, just outside the box he was tripped from behind. However, nothing resulted from the free kick. 2 minutes later, Chidi took a long ranger shot which had power but lacked direction and Sandip had no problem to gather the ball.
The first chance of the game fell for Mohun Bagan in the 21st minute. From Barreto's through pass, Ishfaq made a great run but his cross found no Mohun Bagan player, he could have taken a shot instead. Ishfaq in the past has scored goals from that angle. In the next minute, from free kick, Ishfaq got an identical ball but again he chose to cross but the defence had no problem to clear the ball.
Chirag was playing negative football with only Joshimar upfront. Seeing Mohun Bagan pile pressure on them, coach Subrata went further into shell by bringing midfielder Jayanta in place of forward Sankar Oraon.
Mohun Bagan was denied a clear penalty after Du handled the ball inside the box. A cross from right deflected off Du's hand and changed its direction and went to Sandip Nandi. All the Mohun Bagan players appealed for penalty but referee completely ignored the incident.
In the 27th minute, from corner, Sangram missed the flight and Joshimar's head hit the top part of the post and went out.
Ishfaq initiated a good move, from his pass, Rakesh released the ball towards Barreto, who made a good run down the left flank and sent a nice cross. Du cleared the ball over Chidi's head and then Sueoka was fouled at the edge of the box. From the resulting free kick, Sueoka curled in the ball and Sandip made a stunning save as he dived to his left to fist the ball out.
Chidi showed brilliant skill in the 38th minute. Getting a pass from Barreto, he dribbled past two players inside Chirag box and sent a cross towards Sueoka, but Sandip again made a diving save to clear the ball.
Just before half time, Dipak made a very good tackle denying Joshimar to take a shot.
After the change of ends, in the 53rd minute, James replaced Ishfaq. Few minutes later, from Gouranga Dutta's cross, Sangram cleared the ball, but the ball went straight to Ashim and luckily for Mohun Bagan the latter's shot ballooned over crossbar.
In the 59th minute, Mohanraj went for first time tackle and missed the ball. Joshimar made a good run and his cross took a wicked deflection off Azim's leg and was going inside goal, Sangram made a very good save. Joshimar was the only Chirag player who had a good match and tried to do something positive for their team in spite of the negative tactics adopted by their coach.
Then match was stopped for 24 minutes due to floodlight problem. Coach Biswajit looked very upset and said that because of this delay, team faced a lot of problem. He said, "I suspect it was purposefully done so that Chidi could not play the full match. I had asked referee to give 10 minutes for warmup, as it was a long break, but referee suddenly started the game and because of this Barreto got injured due to a muscle pull. It is very surprising how such nontechnical people get the chance to supervise such an important game."
Just after the match resumed, from James corner, Chidi brilliantly headed the ball which beat defence and crossed the goal line, but after a Chirag defender cleared the ball from inside goalline, Souvik pushed the ball again inside goal, but referee disallowed the goal for reasons best known to him. When Chidi leaped up to head the ball, he had Du marking him and Sandip also jumped to fist the ball, but Chidi nicely evaded his marker and took a powerful header without pushing anybody.
In the next minute, from Mohanraj's pass, Sueoka took the ball inside the box and he was pushed from behind by Du and referee awarded a penalty in favour of Mohun Bagan. Chirag players hit the referee for the next 10 minutes and rightly referee showed red card to 2 Chirag players, Denson and Du. IFA should also take strict action against Chirag players for such misconduct against referee. Chidi scored from the penalty by placing the ball inside goal to the left side of Sandip Nandi.
In the 72nd minute, Manish replaced injured Barreto. Few minutes later, from Souvik's cross, Chidi brilliantly flicked the ball towards goal which narrowly missed the target.
Mohun Bagan, however, did not play good football in the last 10 minutes. They unnecessarily wasted a lot of time and played square passes amongst themselves and allowed Chirag to attack.
In the 84th minute, Ashim suddenly got a loose ball inside Mohun Bagan box, but his shot went out. It was a very lucky escape for Mohun Bagan goal.
Chidi had to rush to catch the 8.30 p.m. flight and so was replaced in the 88th minute, Suraj came as a replacement and immediately got a through pass from Manish, he went past Sandip and took a dive. Action replay showed it was in no way a penalty. The effort Suraj took to dive after nicely dribbling past Sandip, he could have chased the ball and put it in the back of the net.
In the injury time, Rakesh Masih took a long ranger shot but Sandip had no problem to make a save.
The last action of the match saw Chirag getting a direct free kick outside the Mohun Bagan box but Ashim's shot went over the target.
Sueoka was rightly adjudged Man of the Match for his brilliant performance today. It was shocking that few months back he and Chidi were suspected by a section of media as underperforming due to their closeness to ex-coach Karim Bencharifa, but both of them have delivered consistent performance in the last few matches. Even Chidi played today's match in spite of health related problem to his wife. Sueoka has been a great recruit by Mohun Bagan officials on the recommendation of Karim, and it is to be seen whether he will be retained in the next season or not.
After the match, coach Biswajit gave credit for this win to his players, supporting staff and also the officials.
Mohun Bagan will leave for Mumbai tomorrow afternoon to play their last match of the I league against Mumbai FC on the 28th of May.
The 18-member team for Mumbai FC match is as follows: Shilton, Pralay, Surkumar, Zenith, Biswajit, Dipak, Azim, Mandi, Manish, Rakesh, Micky, Lalramluaha, Ishfaq, Santa Kumar, James, Sueoka, Suraj and Branco.
PICTURES: Subir Majumdar
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| Match Highlights |
| Result - Mohun Bagan :
1 - 0 : Chirag United |
| Team |
Sangram Mukherjee ,
Ryuji Sueoka,
Souvik Chakraborty,
Ishfaq Ahmed (CAPTAIN),
Surkumar Singh,
N Mohan Raj,
Seikh Azim,
Deepak Mondal,
Rakesh Masih,
Chidi Edeh,
Jose Ramirez Barreto,
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| Replacements |
Ishfaq Ahmed (CAPTAIN)
, ( out - 53),
Jose Ramirez Barreto
, ( out - 72),
Chidi Edeh
, ( out - 88),
Lukram James Singh
, ( in - 53),
Manish Maithani
, ( in - 72),
Suraj Mandal
, ( in - 88), |
| MB Goals |
Chidi Edeh ( 67 min ), |
| Opp Goals |
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| MB Cards |
Surkumar Singh ( 35 min - Booked) , Souvik Chakraborty ( 40 min - Booked) , N Mohan Raj ( 78 min - Booked) , Sangram Mukherjee ( 83 min - Booked) , Deepak Mondal ( 42 min - Booked) , |
| MB MoM |
Ryuji Sueoka |
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