Mohun Bagan tamed by Prayag United in the second round of I-League encounter at Salt Lake stadium, Kolkata
Prayag United secured their second win in their opening back to matches of the I-League 2012-13 season to occupy the second position in the league table just under Pune FC on goal difference. Odafa put the Mariners ahead following a goal bound pass from Denson Devdas in just 19th minute of the game, but the Purple side made the fightback coming from the behind and equalized within 8 minutes of conceding the goal, that goal can be described easily as the result of the poor Mohun Bagan defence as Sukhen Dey of Prayag sent in a cross which was deflected in the goal by Khelemba Singh, beating Mohun Bagan custodian Arindam Bhattacharya who was in a move towards the front with Ranti Martins lurking. According to FIFA’s guidelines, the goal was later awarded to Sukhen Dey despite suggestions of a possible own goal. Just before the first half whistle, Kayne Vincent scored the second for Prayag following an excellent pass from Carlos Hernandez.
The lack of understanding in the entire Mohun Bagan side became clearly visible on different occasions with poor tactics, strategy & understanding of Mohun Bagan coach Santosh Kashyap, which made the situation easier for the opponents. Meanwhile, the Purple side look well determined in the every aspect of the game. Moreover, they looked like a complete unit due to the good strategy & good game reading of Prayag coach Sanjoy Sen.
It seemed somewhere that Mohun Bagan was overshadowed by a cursed dark cloud; everybody expected Mohun Bagan to fight back & beat their Kolkata counterparts Prayag United by a decent margin today, but a completely opposite story shaped out. The Mariners swallowed a 1-2 defeat in front of almost forty thousand home supporters at Yuva Bharati Kringan, Salt Lake in Kolkata. Apart from the first twenty minutes, it never looked like the Mariners were in the commanding position in the match. On paper, the Purple side is slightly better than the Green & Maroon brigade, but the Mariners also started with the best forward line of the country right now. How much the Odafa & Tolgay combination could perform on the ground is a different issue, but on paper & as far as the payment is concerned, this duo is the best in the country right now.
On the other hand, the purple side looked like a machine, although they missed their key defender Belo Razzak due to the red card in the last match; this never reflected in their performance. The two senior pro defenders – Deepak Mondal & Gourmangi Singh were defending their fortress smoothly while the great hands of Subrata Paul in front of the goal were giving more reliability in the back. The Costa Rican international was leading all the attacks from the midfield while Ranti Martins & Kayne Vincent was leading the attack upfront.
According to me, Mohun Bagan might have the worst defence in the country right now and it should be a major cause of concern for them. Helemba Singh & foreign recruit Eche both were unaware of their responsibility in the ground, there wasn’t any coordination between them, moreover, Eche is not a player whose physique can take the load of playing for entire 90 minutes. He never looked like he deserves a place in any I-League side this year. The condition of the midfield was equally poor, there wasn’t any good passer or blocker. Meanwhile, Mohun Bagan’s other foreign recruit Stanley, who himself doesn’t know why was he recruited & where the team needs him.
I-League is a marathon league, nobody can predict who can won the crown this season just after two rounds, but as of now Prayag looks the most composed, well determined team & a real contender for the crown whereas if the Mariners want to something better ahead they have to improve in all the departments.