Arunava about Football A look at football & the world through my eyes!
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A lot had been expected from the latest derby East Bengal Club and Mohun Bagan AC in the I-League at the Kanchenjunga Stadium Siliguri, but despite all the pre-match hype it turned out to be a drab goalless draw.
To start on the positive, both sets of fans were incredible! Whatever could be seen on TEN 2 showed what positives the Kolkata derby in 2017 stands for, then it was colourful, loud and noisy but from whatever has been heard from Siliguri, all was peaceful as well.
Coming to the football and on the field that matters. The two giants of Kolkata and Indian football coming into the match were the top two on the I-League table with East Bengal coming into the game off a six match winning streak, while Mohun Bagan had also only a draw to show having won all their other matches in the I-League and AFC Cup qualifiers.
But on Sunday afternoon the stars of the day were the goalkeepers in Rehenesh T.P. for East Bengal and Debjit Majumder for Mohun Bagan as Rehenesh walked away with the Hero of the Match award, which could also have gone to Debjit or been split amongst the keepers.
But also the keepers didn’t have much to do only they were there to thwart any danger when called into action as the defensive units of both teams rained supreme.
The much talked about attack of both teams, be it Wedson Anselme, Willis Deon Plaza and Robin Singh upfront for East Bengal or Sony Norde, Darryl Duffy, Jeje Lalpekhlua and Katsumi Yusa for Mohun Bagan; they all were a pale shadow of themselves who have been performing to the highest levels since the start of the I-League in early-January 2017.
The game never rose to great heights despite Mohun Bagan having more of the ball and the better chances in the first half, while East Bengal were the better side in the second session; but despite all this I had hoped for a high quality game of football, which turned out to be as mentioned earlier a drab affair.
A reason given for the poor quality of the match was the poor pitch conditions, but for that the players need to be professional enough to adopt and adjust their game accordingly.
For me the game lacked imagination, creativity, the will to risk things then both coaches and set of players were very careful of not committing any mistakes, which became evident from the way the game was played.
The old good football saying, a goal would be good for a match sums up what could have changed the match, if one of the sides scored an early goal and the other would have to chase. It wasn’t to be and I hope we will get a better derby to watch in April, maybe the constellation in the I-League table then would force one or both of the sides to play for a win and not be content with a point like today.
