Mohun Bagan's senior brigade looks drenched in the face of the tiger-like fight of East Bengal's reserve bench footballers in the drawn match of the Kolkata Derby
Pictures by Bibhash Lodh, BS News Agency.
East Bengal 1 (Bilal) Mohun Bagan 1 (Manbir)
Namita Deb, BS News Agency: Mohun Bagan's senior brigade looks drenched in the face of the tiger-like fight of East Bengal's reserve bench footballers in the drawn match of the Kolkata Derby
Everyone has read the story of David and Goliath as a child. Still reading it. The story of the giant Goliath's defeat by little David is therefore not unknown to anyone. But if you see it happening before your eyes, then the feeling is bound to be different. The way East Bengal's reserve bench players fought evenly against Mohun Bagan Supergiant's senior brigade in the Kolkata Football League derby at the Barasat Stadium on Monday, leaving the match 1-1 and leaving the field with their heads held high, reminded me more of the David and Goliath duel. Even though they didn't win the match, there is no doubt that it was a moral victory for the red and yellow team. For Mohun Bagan, this draw is a complete disgrace. As a result of this draw, East Bengal topped the group with 27 points from 11 matches. After that, Bhavanipur remained in second place with the same number of 27 points, trailing on goal difference. And Mohun Bagan SG is in third place with 23 points.
East Bengal reserve team coach Archisman Biswas must be given credit for drawing with pride without giving Mohun Bagan's star footballers any opportunity to show their dominance. Many might say, what is the excitement about the draw again, why did East Bengal footballers celebrate with the red and yellow fans present at the Barasat Stadium after the match?
The answer is very simple. Mohun Bagan Super Giant coach Prabhu Roy kept 8 footballers who regularly played in the ISL in the first eleven to win a derby to uphold the rules of the Kolkata Football League. Who was not in that team. In defense, Shubhashis, Beke, Mehtab, in midfield, Apuya, in attack, Sahal, Manbir, Kian, Sayan. There were three footballers who did not play in ISL, Raj Basfour, Tanmoy Ghosh, and goalkeeper Deepprabhat Ghosh.
There, East Bengal coach Archisman relied on the footballers of his reserve team. Who had fought so long and taken East Bengal to the Super Six. And not only that, the brave attitude of the red and yellow coach Archisman has to be praised, for starting with 11 Bengali footballers in the first eleven against the star-studded team of Mohun Bagan. East Bengal's Manotosh Majhi, Akash Hembram, Vijay Murmu, Ankan Bhattacharya, Vikram Pradhan, Joy Baz and later substitute Mohammad Bilal overcame the inertia of the first half and repeatedly attacked in the second half to put pressure on the Mohun Bagan defense and score goals, there is no doubt that the future of these footballers is bright. On such a day, the East Bengal coach is deeply worried about Manotosh Majhi's serious injury. He does not know if he will get it in the rest of the match.
East Bengal footballers understand that they have to play with a little extra respect for the opponent, Mohun Bagan is actually a paper tiger. Just as an elephant becomes helpless when it gets stuck in a muddy field, the situation of Bagan footballers is similar. On the contrary, East Bengal footballers had no problem playing this game. Because they played in worse fields and won the previous matches. They did it today too. Not only East Bengal fans, but also Bagan fans will remember the spectacular goal of Kerala's Trivandrum footballer Mohammad Bilal with a header from Vijay Murmur's corner in the 65th minute with a lot of pain in their hearts. If Vijay Murmur's miss and Jay Baj's effort had not been blocked by the post, East Bengal would have won the Kolkata Football League derby. Coach Orchiman was able to motivate his footballers by saying that there is no need to look at how many big-name footballers there are on the other side. Rather, think about your own game. Give your best on the field. You will not get such a platform to showcase your skills again. If you play well, the door to playing in the senior team and ISL will open for many.
In fact, Mohun Bagan Super Giant has not yet been able to erase the pain of losing 1-4 goals in the Durand Cup final from their minds. Be it the team management or the coach-footballers. They had one thought in mind, that they should not face defeat in the Kolkata Football League derby in any way. And to do that, they dropped the senior footballers playing in the ISL on the Barasat field. But they should have understood this, the field of the Barasat stadium became very heavy due to the torrential rain in the afternoon, with mud stuck under the thick grass. It was not possible for the so-called star footballers of Mohun Bagan to roll the ball. As a result, passing football died on the field. Playing pick-up football, the Bagan footballers could not create much of a situation to break the rigidity of the red and yellow defense footballers and score a goal. In the 38th minute, Manbir got the ball from Apuyar and beat goalkeeper Gaurav Shaw with a shot past East Bengal's Ankan Bhattacharya. But then, apart from Sayon's last-minute attempt to score, where were Mohun Bagan's open chances? Sayon's shot would have gone into the goal, if goalkeeper Gaurav had not punched it out in time. And that's why Gaurav was the man of the match for playing with confidence throughout the match.
After a long time, a big match was organized at the Barasat Stadium by the IFA. It was the Kolkata Derby again. IFA Secretary Anirban Dutt breathed a sigh of relief as the match went off without any untoward incident. However, after the match, some fans slapped Mohun Bagan footballers on the head in the crowd while they were leaving the dressing room and getting into the team bus and their own cars. The team and media managers are quite angry. They said that they will bring the whole matter to the attention of the IFA Secretary due to the laxity of the police in providing security to the footballers.