AFC Cup Quarter-final First Leg: East Bengal 1-0 Semen Padang – Five Talking Points

Sportskeeda reviews East Bengal’s 1-0 win over Indonesian champions Semen Padang in the AFC Cup quarter-final first leg by listing the five talking points.

Falopa has a big result to kick-start his reign

Photo Credit: Kingfisher East Bengal

Right from day one, Marcos Falopa has been reminded of the achievements of his predecessor and even before this match also, East Bengal’s Brazilian coach was reminded about the consistency of Trevor James Morgan. Falopa, to his credit, has always kept his calm whenever the topic of Morgan has come up in media interactions and has been respectful towards the Englishman throughout.

But the 64-year-old was well aware of the need of a few big results to become an instant hit among fans and more importantly, come out of Morgan’s shadow. And Falopa got one massive result on Tuesday. Although East Bengal’s performance wasn’t the best, a win with a clean sheet in the home match of a two-legged quarter-final tie is hardly disastrous and has in fact given Falopa a solid base to build on.

The players were always going to take time to adapt under a new coach and the fact that they got an important result despite not being at their best will be a very encouraging sign for Falopa. The win also maintained the Kolkata club’s perfect home record in this year’s AFC Cup. East Bengal would have preferred to have won by a bigger margin but Semen Padang were unbeaten in the AFC Cup until Tuesday and suffered only their second defeat in 24 matches in all competitions. So the 1-0 victory still remains an excellent result and could kick-start the Falopa era at East Bengal.

Sueoka should be a regular starter

Ryuji SueokaPhoto Credit: Kingfisher East Bengal

Falopa has only been in charge for about two months but has already been the subject of some criticism from the ever demanding local media in Kolkata with the focus being on a reported fall out between the Brazilian and Japanese signing Ryuji Sueoka. The controversy started in pre-season with Falopa consistently questioning Sueoka’s fitness following a training injury. The Japanese was kept on the bench for East Bengal’s opening local league encounter and also not in the starting eleven on Tuesday.

Sueoka, however, came on to grab the winner against Semen Padang to not only remind Falopa of his quality but also give the local media another chance to point the finger at the East Bengal coach. However, Sueoka’s admission after the win on Tuesday that he still needs games to be fully fit suggests that there was a valid reason behind Falopa’s decision to not start with the playmaker.

Sueoka’s super-sub act must have now cleared away any doubts in Falopa’s mind about the former Mohun Bagan player’s class. The Brazilian coach even stated after the game that Sueoka will start in the second leg and rightly so. In fact, with four foreigners allowed in the first eleven now, the 34-year-old should be a sure starter for the red-and-gold brigade in the I-League also because his ability to create chances and score goals from deeper positions is second to none in the current East Bengal squad.

East Bengal lack options in central midfield

Falopa lacks options in central midfield

Even under Trevor Morgan in the second half of last season, East Bengal didn’t have too many natural central midfielders in the squad. With Harmanjot Singh Khabra also being used in full back positions, the Englishman compensated by using a diamond in midfield which saw the likes of Lalrindika Ralte, Sanju Pradhan or Ishfaq Ahmed play close to defensive midfielder Mehtab Hossain while playmaker Penn Orji was the furthest forward just behind the two strikers.

Falopa opted for a traditional 4-4-2 against Semen Padang and if he intends to play that way for the rest of the season, the Brazilian could struggle as he doesn’t have enough natural central midfielders in the squad. Cavin Lobo was Mehtab’s partner on Tuesday but that isn’t his natural position. The Goan struggled in the first half and only had an impact when East Bengal switched to a 4-1-4-1 in the final half hour.

With Khabra still far from full fitness and Subodh Kumar not convincing Falopa to be even in the match squad, the former Myanmar coach might have to play a different system or maybe hope that the deadlock between IMG-Reliance and I-League clubs’ gets resolved so that he can loan one midfielder from IMG-R. Because, as of now, Falopa doesn’t have a fit player who can partner Mehtab in the central midfield of a 4-4-2 system. Perhaps, Falopa might have to play just one striker with Sueoka just behind in a 4-4-1-1.

Chid & Moga must build an understanding quickly

Edeh Chidi and James Moga played like strangers in the first leg(Photo Credit: Kingfisher East Bengal)

The biggest upgrade in this East Bengal squad from last season was the addition of one of I-League’s hottest strikers in James Moga. The South Sudan international striker was expected to share the goal scoring responsibility with Edeh Chidi, who was often overburdened last term. But, on the evidence of the first leg against Semen Padang, the two are yet to form any sort of understanding and more worryingly, look far from match fit. Both Chidi and Moga notoriously arrived late for pre-season citing the reason of not getting their visa on time. Even if the reason is true, that didn’t help East Bengal’s cause because they needed their two foreign forwards to be at their best from day one and especially in the AFC Cup tie.

Perhaps Falopa should have insisted on playing a direct style which would have allowed Chidi and Moga to impose their physicality on the Semen Padang defence. But without an understanding, even regular high balls wouldn’t have been enough for Chidi and Moga to combine successfully. So, the challenge for the two and Falopa will be now to work on combination play. Of course, only training sessions until next week’s second leg won’t bring an immediate change in the interplay of the two strikers but they surely can’t play any worse than the first leg. Even if there is an ego clash between the two, for the team’s sake at least, Falopa has to ensure that the star strikers play for each other and build up an understanding as soon as possible.

Wasteful Semen Padang still favourites to go through

Semen Padang were wasteful in the first leg

Semen Padang coach Jafri Sastra claimed after the game that East Bengal were slightly lucky to win 1-0 and he is not entirely wrong as the hosts didn’t create enough clear cut opportunities while the Indonesian side kept Gurpreet Singh Sandhu busy and also hit the woodwork just minutes before the only goal of the game. But in truth, Semen Padang have only themselves to blame for their poor finishing as they could have easily scored a couple of away goals and won the first leg. In the first half in particular, the technical superiority of Semen Padang was evident as they controlled midfield and threatened to kill the tie in the first leg.

But Semen Padang paid for their wastefulness and now have very little margin for error in the second leg. However on paper at least they remain slight favourites because home advantage in the second leg could be decisive while physically they are in much better shape than East Bengal who are also getting used to life under Marcos Falopa. Semen Padang will also be boosted by the return of Indonesia international defender Wahyu Wijiastanto and Argentinean attacking midfielder Esteban Vizcarra from suspension. Like East Bengal, Semen Padang have won each of their home matches in this season’s AFC Cup with an average attendance of more than 10,000. The second leg could be witnessed by a capacity crowd of 15,000 at the Haji Agus Salim Stadium and that could give the Indonesian club a further edge over an East Bengal side that looks to be a work in progress at the moment.