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Thursday, January 31, 2008

Men in Green and Maroon too good for Quarim's boys!

Mohun Bagan today estopped Churchill in their bid to supremacy in the Yuba Bharati Krirangan. This will certainly go down as one of the best performances put up the men in Green and Maroon in this I league. Churchill coach, Quarim had waived off Bagan as a threat saying that Churchill has the best striker(Odafa) in the I league and certainly they will go for 3 points against Bagan. But what unfolded on the ground was quite unexpected and much to the joy of the million Mariners, Bhaichung Bhutia drew first blood in the 3rd minute of the game when the Churchill goalie squandered an ariel ball from Mohunraj. Pressure football ensued from the both sides but the Churchill attack spear headed by Odafa could not create much ripples in the Bagan defence which was well marshalled by Manju, Peter Odafe, Mohunraj and Subhasish. However, the scoreline saw a change in the 31st minute when Habibur stood up to the occasion and put in his 1st goal in the I league from a back header off Bhaichung. Churchill however pulled one back almost a few minutes later through Iyomi in the 38th minute and Bagan went into the half with a one goal lead. In the second half, Bagan adopted a strategy of defending the one goal and Barreto falling back and playing the role of a central midfielder, Lalampuia was introduced upfront at the expense of Douglas. This was a much wanted reformed show put up by the Bagan defense after the initial jittery performances in the I league, and the defense featuring, Odafe, Manju, Mohunraj, Subhasish and Anit(replaced Lalkamal in the 80th min.) seemed like an unpenetrable wall which returned every single ball that came its way. Odafa, the leading I league scorer was literally cut off from any delivery from his team mate. Churchill piled on the pressure in the second half pushing more men upfront but failed to make a point as the Bagan defenders had a reply for every move they made. Bagan emerged victorious with a score card that read 2-1 and Bagan now are on 24 points, still in the 4th place but just one point behind JCT who after equal number of matches are on 25 points. The Top 5 of the League Table as they stand on 31-1-08 Dempo---30pts Churchill-26pts Jct--------25pts M.Bagan-24pts M.Utd----21pts *n.b- all the teams have played equal number of matches, i.e 14 matches.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Air India hold Bagan!

The Air India-Mohun Bagan tie in Mumbai at the Cooperage ended in a goal less draw as Mohun Bagan earned only one point from this away game. Air India is always a tough opponent away from the home but Bagan controlled the game mainly with a few moments for Air India. The match started off with Bagan attacking and Bhaichung Bhutia along with Barreto created some tremors in the opposition's box. But Air India counter acted with some decent counter attacks testing the Bagan custodian Sangram. The half eneded goal less and Bagan came out in the second half to pile on the pressure and introduced Lalampuia with Barreto working from behind but failed to put the ball in the net as the crossbar once denied Barreto of a header. andalso the crowded defense had the numerical superiority. The Bagan defense on the same strain was not breached and Odafe again stood tall gaurding the Bagan fort! Bagan are on 21 points from 13 outings. Next they play their Home match against Churchill Bros.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Bhaichung Bhutia receives the Padma Shri award!

Yet another feather added to Mohun Bagan and Indian Captain's crown!
Bhaichung Bhutia who had been nominated for the Padma Shri award, in recognition of his distinguished carer and service the game in the country was awarded the prestigious award today evening. According to sources close to Bhutia, he was not over-excited about the nomination as the final list was yet to be cleared by the government before the announcement on then eve of the Republic Day. However the announcement did not come as a shock as Bhutia, who was honoured with the Arjuna Award in 1998, has now become the fifth Indian footballer and fourth Mohun Bagan captain after Gostho Behari Paul (1962), Sailen Manna (1971), Chuni Goswami (1983)(all Mohun Bagan captains) and P.K. Banerjee (1990) to receive the prestigious civilian award.
Our best wishes to our ace striker!

Monday, January 21, 2008

5th Derby win in a row! Bhaichung seal East Bengal's fate!

Fifth time in a row! Five continuous derby victories! Mohun Bagan today swept away East Bengal yet another time in the Kolkata derby.
Bhaichung Bhutia emerged with a glorious brace to put East Bengal behind and earn three points for the team and widen the smiles on the face of the million mariners.
It was what one would say a pretty one-sided affair in the first half as Bagan midfield took control of the game with Douglas posing as the centre figure in blocking East Bengal moves and managed pick up a yellow card. Defence seemed much settled and with Barreto and Bhaichung creating panic in the opposition's box, it seemed Bagan had the upper hand. However in the 29th minute, a picture perfect cross from Barreto from the left found Bhaichung who working his way through two defenders found himself free on the right and let fly a pile driver which squeezed in between the 1st post and the despairing Subrata Paul.
Bagan ended the half with 1 goal lead.
With the beginning of the second half, Douglas was booked fr the second time and received the marching orders (two yellow cards), though one would feel it was a bit harsh for the tackle he executed on Mehraj.
With one man short, Bagan now started to feel the brunt of East Bengal attacks but the impotent East Bengal forward line, starring Mukansi, the supposedly South African World Cupper and Edmilson missing out due to injury, was not enough for Odafe, Manju and Mohunraj, as all of them played brilliant.
East Bengal has not scored a goal in the I league for the last 475 mins({approx} including today's match) showed the reason for their being stuck in the 9th position as on a number of occasions they got the open net opportunity but failed to capitalise.
Then suddenly on the 62nd minute, against the run of play, Barreto lobbed a ball upfront for Bhaichung, who even though lost control kept pursuing it and from a collision amongst Mehraj, Bhaichung and Subrata Paul, the ball ballooned up in the air and headed straight for the goal. Subrata running backwards somehow kept it out but only to hit Dharamjit and then hitting the post and then to Bhaichung who stabbed the ball in. A comedy of errors and certainly a moment to cheer for the Bagan fans.
A number of substitutions on both ends saw Dipankar and Dipendu introduced in the game for East Bengal and the two missed a couple of chances too, not that they got open nets but they failed to make anything positive out of their chances. Subhashish who was introduced in place of Lalkamal also played a positive role in curbing Alvito after the exclusion of Douglas.
Sangram today put up a much more reformed performance and saved two or three balls which were heading for the goal.
The match ended with Bagan reaching on 20 points after 12 matches and East Bengal stagnating in 8 points after their share of 12 matches. East Bengal in 9th position and Mohun Bagan retain their 4th position.
Team: Sangram, Habibur, Odafe, Manju, Mohanraj, James, Douglus, Lalkamal [Subhasish],Dharamjit, Barreto, Baichung(C)
^Carlos, Bagan coach jubiliant after 2nd goal!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Bagan ease past Viva Kerala!

After a disappointing performance against the Viva Kerala team in their home match which Bagan had lost 3-1, was made history as in the 2nd leg match, Bagan put down Viva Kerala by 2 goals to earn 17 points to retain the 4th position on the league table.
Star-studded Mohun Bagan defeated Viva Kerala in the 11th round of the ONGC I-League tie at the Corporation Stadium here on Sunday. The Calcutta giants scored a goal in each half to avenge their first-leg defeat, at the Salt Lake Stadium. Dominating the proceedings right from the inception, the visitors seized the opportunity in the 35th minute when captain Bhaichung Bhutia scored off a brilliant pass from Habibur Rehman Mondal. Although Viva strikers Baba Tunde (Nigeria) and Wisdom Abbey (Ghana) tried their best to bring in the equaliser, the Calcutta outfit, including custodian Sangram Mukherjee, played extremely well to deny any scoring opportunities. Substitute Ishfaq Ahmed increased the margin for the visitors just before the final whistle. Brazilian stars Douglas da Silva and Jose Ramirez Baretto put up an excellent show and the former was adjudged the Man of the Match. With this win, the green-and-maroons have increased their points tally to 17 to remain in the fourth spot behind runaway leaders Dempo. JCT and Churchil Brothers, while Viva with 12 points are left way behind in the seventh position in the 10-team league. Viva Kerala will take on Mahindra in their next match here on January 24
The Duo- Bhaichung and Ishfaq(from left to right) scored a goal each.

Sporting down Bagan by a solitary goal!

Bagan after their winning run was stopped in their tracks by Sporting Clube de Goa who put in a late 85th minute goal to bury Bagan's hope to getting another 3 points from the match. It seemed the whole team was suffering from complacency and even though Bagan had an attacking 15 mins in both the Halves, let down the initiative as Sporting de Goa capitalised.
It was an evenly fought battle and though Bagan created more opporubities to score, Sporing Clube de Goa striker, Junior made sure he did not let his chance go by, when in the 85th minute, a ball was sent in the Bagan penalty box, and Sangram squadered the ariel ball which fell for Juniour, who just placed it in.
Team: Sangram Mukherjee, Habibur Rehman Mondal(Lalkamal Bhowmick), Peter Odafe, N.S. Manju, Mohanraj, James Singh, Bobo, Shanmugam Venkatesh (Lalampuia), Dharamjit Singh (Ishfaq Ahmed), Jose Ramirez Barreto, Baichung Bhutia

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Mohun Bagan move upto fourth!

Bagan today took full three points against Mahindra Utd match in their home match and thus after the end of the 1st leg, Bagan find themselves in the fourth spot on the I league table. At one point, this team, after 5 matches found themselves 9th but a series of important wins have seen them rise to the 4th spot.
Bagan today played the best football f the season, the whole team working like an efficient machine, working up and down and creating pressure in the opposition's box. Mahindra Utd has only defeated East Bengal in their I league campaign, whereas has lost only one match against Churchill has defenitelty one of the tight defenses but even they found it hard to cope up with the brilliant duo of Barreto-Bhaichung.
The entire team, from Habibur to Mohunraj, from Dharamjit to James played a tight game and gave a 100% effort, but they found it hard to put one in as Sandip Nandy, Mahindra Utd custodian stood confidently under the bar.
Odafe was adjudged man-of-the-match for his role in the defense and certainly played well.
However the moment came in the 67th minute, when James provided a through pass to Habibur and Habibur sent in a sharp centre and Barreto rose above the others to score the winner!
Refereeing in the match was of a very low standard as referee A. Arjunan failed to penalise the Mahindra players for their play acting to buy time and earn free kicks and instead, booked Douglas, Manju. Shilton Pal was booked apparently for play-acting after he was tackled, however it was later known he sprained his knee and he will be out of the team.
Bagan play their next match against Sporting Club de Goa in Goa.
TEAM:Shilton Paul (Sangram Mukherjee, 86), Habibur Rehman Mondal, Peter Odafe, N.S. Manju, Mohanraj, James Singh, Douglas da Silva, Shanmugam Venkatesh (Lalkamal Bhowmick 80), Dharamjit Singh (Ishfaq Ahmed 90+), Jose Ramirez Barreto, Baichung Bhutia

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Bagan down East Bengal 4th time this year!

Bagan continued there magic run against their arch rivals as they defeated East Bengal for the 4th time in this year out of their 5 meetings and 3 times out of 4 meetings this season , 2007-08 under the coaching of Carlos Periera.
The match started off with equal importance at stake for both the teams but some how it seemed Bagan had the greater initiative and East Bengal clearly lacked the same.
The match started in a good pace and a 40 yard long shot from Douglas in the 42nd second of the match just somehow kept out though Subrata Paul had failed to cover his goal.
Bagan pressurised in the opening quarter with East Bengal building their play on counter attacks and on one such occasions, Edmilson finding himself one on one with Manju worked his way into the penalty box and then threw himself to the ground begging for a penalty and at best what the referee could reward him for his efforts was a yellow card for diving.
For the remainder of the half a more or less an equal battle was fought though Bagan came close to scoring on a couple of occasions as Barreto and Bhaichung worked hard. Another significant incident was a same side tackle committed by Mehraj on Shaumik and got booked himself and awarded Bagan with an indirect free-kick.
With the beginning of the second half, East Bengal went more physical and the referee also seemed lenient in favour of East Bengal on a number of occasions.
However the moment came in the 61st minute when from an attack from the left, Douglas sent in the cross to the second post and Barreto heading towards the first post where Bhaichung dashed in with a header to put in the wining goal!
After the goal, though East Bengal tried to equalise, yet there was not enough sting in their attack and their plan to feed Edmilson with long balls failed.
Mohunraj played an impressive role along with Manju and Odafe to keep Edmilson and Ashim under tight control.
Bagan now move 5th in the league table along with Mahindra Utd.
Their next match is with Mahindra Utd.

MOHUN BAGAN ATHLETIC CLUB-The National club of India

A Short History:

MOHUN BAGAN AC-The National club of India, the oldest Club in Asia,
was established on 15th August 1889 when India was up in arms against her collonial head, England.

Eversince its establishment the Club had been winning a lot of local leagues and cups but the moment of greatness that surpasses all came in the year 1911 when Mohun Bagan AC became the first Indian club/team to defeat the foreigners in their own game of football.

On 29th of July 1911 Mohun Bagan won the IFA shield beating East Yorkshire 2-1. Eversince there has been no stopping!

The club has won and keeps on winning many a laurel for the country! It has made our Nation Proud!

According to FIFA rankings, in Asia, Mohun Bagan is the 16th biggest team to have an avg. home crowd of 19,888. According to World standards, Mohun Bagan has been ranked of 127 much ahead of other big clubs like Udinese(Italy), Benfica(Portugal) and Fulham(England) to mention a few.

It is however,not an easy task to consolidate the history of a club which is more than 117 years old*...(read more...)

*For Further Info:Please visit The Offical site of MAC: History section please open in a New Window

Location: Kolkata Maidan
Colours:
Green and Maroon
Symbol: Sail Boat

Stadium: Mohun Bagan ground
Yuva Bharati Krirangan

MOHUN BAGAN AC- It's not just a club, it is an institution, a religion, a passion. LIVE IT...DIE FOR IT...

A Pictorial trip of the Mohun Bagan Ground!

Satellite Imagery of our Club Ground!*
*Open in a New Window please.
Images of Yuva Bharati Krirangan*
*Open in a New Window please.

Photos by: Soumyadeb Sinha
Photos by: Soumyadeb Sinha

Souvenirs

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