Saturday, November 3, 2012

East Bengal vs Dempo, fourth round clash of I-League, finished in a stalemate





        The clash between the current I-League champion Dempo Sc & the current Federation Cup champion East Bengal finished in an 1 all draw in Salt Lake stadium today in the fourth round of the I-League this year. Edeh Chidi put the homeside ahead from a penalty at the 31st minute of the game, Peter Carvalho rescued Armando Colaso & co this time by scoring a delayed equalizer in the 82nd minute. With this stalemate both the teams remain unbeaten in this I-League yet.
       It was almost 60,000 Red & Gold supporters were present in Salt Lake stadium today to cheer & eyewitness their victory but Peter Carvalho the only man who spoiled the party for them & restored the parity for the visitors.
       Without any argument currently two best side met today under the supervision of the two best coaches of the country right now. So it was all about tactics & strategy between two veteran mentors of two best sides. Regarding the previous trackrecords the Dempo boss Armando Colaso is staying far behind the East Bengal’s British coach Trevor James Morgan, in Morgan’s tenure these two sides met 8 times, the Red & Gold became remain victorious 5 times while the Blue side managed to win once only, two match finished in a stalemate. So it was a salvage time for Armando Colaso while Morgan tried to make his record more superior.
        Morgan kept his side unchanged, apart from the wounded custodian Abhijit Mondal, he started with the same wining eleven of Pune F.C match, only Abhijit is replaced by the 6 fit 2 inch Gurpreet Sing Sandhu.
         Everybody knows Armando always like to work with native boys, he always keep faith on them & he became the most successful coach of the country with working with those “Desi boys” having five I-League crown on his kitty. Noticeably Armando put the EPL star Rohan Ricketts & the sensational Joaquin Abranches out of his first eleven, he started with the most experienced campaigner Climax Lawrence in his midfield.

         The entire first half was dominated by the hosts, Mehtab & Pen Orji was leading all the attacks towards Dempo’s box. Manndeep got a very easy chance in the very early stages of the game but he failed to score from 1:1 situation, only managed to found the safe pair of hands of the Dempo custodian Subhasish Roychowdhury. Dempo started to play in very short passed during the entire first half.
          Finally Dempo defence yielded in front of the immense pressure of East Bengal attacks, veteran Mahesh Gawli failed to get rid of goal bound Naoba Singh, Mahesh tried to stop him by kicking off from the behind, referee Ajeet Meetai blew the whistle & pointed towards the spot, Chidi didn’t make any mess to convert it from the spot. There were few more occasions, East Bengal could have increased the lead but due to the safe hands of Subhasih the first half was ended in 1-0 situation in hometeam’s fore.
         Armando Colaso changed the entire strategy in the second half, we got a different Dempo from the beginning minutes of the second half, they started to play in long ball instead of short passes. They have taken three vital changes, introduced Rowlison, Joaqim & foreign recruit Rohan Rickets in the place of Mahesh Gawli, Clifford Miranda & Koko Sakibo which became fruitful for them.
         There was a genuine penalty when Ryuji Suoeka was brought down in the box by East Bengal defender Saumik Dey. Referee Ajeet Metai denied the visitors from a clear penalty. The Dempo players got fired, pushed & slapped referee. Ajeet Metai made another blunder by showing only an yellow card to Ryuoi Suoeka instead of few red cards.
          Naoba passed a delightful through ball for Penn inside of the Dempo box, he slipped the ball towards Robin Singh & it was really hard to swallow & understand that how did the East Bengal forward Robin Singh crawl over the ball in front of the empty goal from inside of the six yard box, its really very critical to miss from this position. If Robin scored the the match could have sealed in East Bengal’s name easily, but unfortunately it didn’t happen.
           Dempo got their equalizer in the 82nd minute from a corner complete against the run of play, the ball swung to the far corner was headed back towards goal by Cresson Antao, before a goalmouth scramble ensued and it was Peter Carvalho who had the last touch before the ball ended in the back of the net. It was Gurpreet’s indecision to come and get the ball that cost the home side. After that goal East Begal had few more chances but they failed to convert them.
         This season East Bengal have been suffering a lot since the beginning due to lack of penetration across the opponent box, visibly most of the times during play Chidi was missing a companion in up front. I think East Bengal officials should think immediately regarding that issue.
         After four round of I-League Dempo is leading the tally with 10 points from four matches, East Bengal is following right behind with 8 points from four matches.
         My Opinion: With his due respect why did Morgan not try to seal his defenceline in the later stage of second half when East Bengal was leading in  1-0 margin ? Why did he not try to cut the pace of Joaquim in the left side ? the question will also arise regarding the inclusion of Robin Singh in the place of Mannandeep Singh in second half, I think he should bring a blocker instead of a forward for holding the 1-0 margin till the end & if a player like Robin Singh really deserves a place in a heavy weight side like East Bengal or not ? if he deserves then when will he get matured & show some adultery ? I think situation & time will give us all those answers.

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