East Bengal bagged
the 34th Federation Cup at Kanchenjunga stadium, Siliguri beating Goanese
powerhouse Dempo SC 3-2 margin in an extended extra time in a match full of
excitement, that is their 8th victory in Fed cup. Climax Lawrence scored the first for the
visitors in the 5th minute of the 2nd half, Arnab Mondal
equalized for the Red & Gold brigade at the 60th minute of the
game, the stalemate was not broken in the entire 90 minutes, match lead towards
an extended extra time, Manandepp Singh put East Bengal ahead once again in the
100th minute, Edeh Chidi hammered the last nail in Dempo’s coffin at
the 109th minute of the game while veteran Mahesh Gawli minimized
the margin for Dempo 8 minutes to remain the last whistle.
It was the mother of
all battles, clash of the titans when two best teams of the country clashed off
each other in Siliguri. In the first half both the sides started the game in a
low pace, they tried to measure each other’s strength, in different occasions
both the team had few good opportunities but they failed to convert from those.
In second half we got two
complete different sides in the field, firstly Dempo pressed the paddle of the
accelerator, they got the result, midfielder Cliamx Lawrence scored from a
sound sitter just in front of the topbox, that goal brought evoked the famous
East Bengal sprit, Arnab Mondal scored from a superb header following a corner
of Mehtab Hossain from the right. Both the teams had chances but they failed to
score in the entire 90 minutes, match headed towards extended period.
In extra time we got the
Red & Gold brigade in their famous known rhythm, Manandepp scored after the
rebound after Dempo custodian Subhasis Raichoudary blocked partially Lalrindika’s
shot in the 100th minute of the game, And within 10 minutes,
Manandeep turned provider, sending Chidi free with a long ball and this time
time the Nigerian scored himself rather passing the ball to someone else.
Mahesh Gawli tried to unsettle East Bengal by beating the Ease Bengal custodian
Abhijit Mondal for the second time, but their fightback was not sufficient to
spoil the dream of East Bengal.
Another thing desperately
I need to say that East Bengal captain Mehtab Hossain who had to leave the
ground in last year Fed Cup final & his team couldn’t overcome from that blow, made a complete
redemption this year, sometimes it looked like he was with 10 oxygen cylinders
connected with his heart. Due to the yellow card problem East Bengal missed two
of their key defenders courtesy Gurbinder Singh & Okpara, so Mehtab had to
play from a bit of behind of his normal midfield position, but he completed his
duty with letter marks. During the match everywhere we were getting Mehtab, he
was working as a link between defence & midfield, sometimes he was leading
the attacks from the midfield although wherever East Bengal had setpiece we got
Mehtab in there, exactly he has done a priceless job for his team.
It was a battle between
the tactics of currently two best coaches of the country & it has to be
told regarding strategy Morgan completely outclassed & outsmarted his
counterpart Aramndo Colaso, he made the right change in right time by
introducing Nirmal Cheetri & Lalrindika Ralte in the exact time which
increased the pace of the game & the penetration ability for East Bengal in
latter stage while Dempo boss Armando Colaso made two blunders by taking off two
of his best gamemakers Climaz Lawrence & Anthony Perera outside the field,
due to those tow changes the penetration of Dempo completely stopped which made
the situation easier for the Kolkata giant.
It was also a battle between
Bengal & Goa & this time Bengal keep the flag high for us. It was also
the 57th birthday of East Bengal coach Morgan, nothing could have
been better gift for him than that victory.
This ahould be said here that in
country’s football map Siliguri is known as the second home of East Bengal
& we got a really vociferous crowd always continued to chant & shout
for their homeside which increased the morale boost of the Red & Gold
brigade, which made the situation tougher for opponents.
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