Bagan stumble against JCT!

Mohun Bagan went down 2-1 in the I league opener against JCT today at Kolkata. The show put up by Bagan seemed like a sad story with a few disjointed episodes. Hope this match works as an eye opener for Perierra and his boys and they realise that I league is a totally different ball game and the standard of football is much higher than the local league. It was evident that Douglas and Odafe are the two blunders signings for Bagan this season. The duo some how carried on in the Kolkata league but their limited capabilty gave way to numerous loop holes in the Bagan defence and midfield.

Perriera moreover made a tacttical mistake by playing an injured Barreto in the 1st half and then bringing on Lalampuia in the second replacing Barreto when he is one goal down.

To add on to this, there were the howler misses from the Bagan striking force.

Lalam hit the side netting from a handshaking distance from the goal, and Venkatesh who was set up with a beautiful ball only could hit the keeper. Barreto also missed a chance in the 1st half.

And to add to the woes of Bagan the JCT goalie was at the top of his game saving at least 2 sure goals.

Bagan conceded a goal in the opening quarter of the match courtesy a wonderful free kick from the JCT man Eduardo. The defence and the midfield seemed to be floundering in darkness with miss passes and erratic play. The first half continued with both the teams getting chances to score.

In the second half also Bagan went all out after a few minutes and the flat footed Bagan defence found it hard to cope up with the young gun Chettri and the Brazilian Eduardo creating gapping immense amount of space for the duo to work, but fortunately for Bagan JCT could only put in one other goal in the entire 2nd half.

In the dying minutes, Odafe headed a strong header only to pull one back.

Team: Shilton, Basfore(Lalkamal), Rauf, Odafe, Maria, Douglas, Venkatesh, James, Dharamjit, Bhaichung, Barreto(Lalam)