#4 Mohun Bagan 4-3 East Bengal (Kolkata Football League, 2007)
There are coaches who create hype, and then there’s just one coach who does that. Franz Beckenbauer is to Bayern Munich what Subrata Bhattacharya was to Mohun Bagan. Mind the word, was! This match is well remembered for a man, known throughout the world for his footballing prowess, changing sides to sit on an East Bengal bench. Worse, that happened as a coach.
Subrata Bhattacharya was fierce as a defender but was even fiercer as a Mohun Bagan faithful. The Indian International defender was a club legend and was one of the Green-and-Maroon loyalists. You could sense the turbulence in the football fraternity when he agreed to manage East Bengal, the arch-rivals, in 2007. 10 years after that Fed Cup semi-final, another man in the dugout was the centre of attraction of millions. Was he a smiling man at the end? The scoreline suggests otherwise.
With a defensive mindset, East Bengal began the match trying to disrupt the Mohun Bagan midfield and attack with a flurry of fouls and poor tackles. Subrata had assigned Madhab Das, a centre-back, to mark Jose Ramirez Barreto, one of the best foreign players India ever had. With the guile and ability of a Brazilian, Jose proved too good for Madhab and befooled the East Bengal’s defence throughout the match. Barreto dropped deep into the Bagan’s midfield to create a gaping hole in the East Bengal’s defence.
Lalampuiya, a TFA graduate with remarkable talent, began the scoring with a wonderful solo run. Madhab, frustrated by Barreto’s difficult man-marking, tripped him in the box in the 35th minute and the Brazilian blasted the nets comfortably. Shanmugam Venkatesh, probably Mohun Bagan’s best player in the first half, scored with a brilliant angular shot just before the stroke of half-time, to make in 3-0. While the teams walked down the tunnel, East Bengal were staring at a reversal of the 5-0 victory of IFA Shield while Mohun Bagan were licking their tongues.
Out of the tunnel for the second half, East Bengal looked a team who had been motivated and were in for a fight. Subrata Bhattacharya was always known to be a player with a never-say-die attitude and that rubbed onto his team. Alvito D’Cunha started a comeback of sorts, scoring in the first minute of the second half to make it 3-1. Venkatesh scored his second to re-assign a three-goal cushion to Mohun Bagan, but that was short-lived. Alvito scored with a brilliant drop shot on the hour mark to make it 4-2, and East Bengal players believed the game was on.
On 67 minutes, Brazilian striker Edmilson converted from the spot to make it 4-3, and game was truly on. Both teams attacked in pursuit of victory, but no goals were scored. East Bengal were disheartened as a spirited comeback fell short and Mohun Bagan fluffed their chances to put five past the Red and Gold for the first time in history. The excitement was evident, the crowd went berserk and the match was remembered for its good football and brilliant fight-back from East Bengal.
