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United SC end their I-League campaign with a local derby against East Bengal Club at the Saltlake Stadium in Kolkata on Monday evening.
East Bengal is in second spot in the I-League table, while United SC is placed ninth just behind Mumbai FC, who are scheduled to face Mohammedan Sporting Club at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune this evening.
The I-League title once more eluded the red-and-gold outfit after they faced a huge setback losing to Churchill Brothers on April 16 ,thus ending their title challenge. On the other hand, lacklustre performances from the United SC forward line left Subrata Bhattacharya and coach Ananta Ghosh aghast. Match after match, squandering chance after chance at the front. Finally the wait ended last week when their purple linchpin Eric Brown scoring a brace against relegation threatened Churchill Brothers and took the team out of the relegation zone almost single handedly.
Deepak Mondal, the veteran purple camp stalwart, is subject to return to the starting eleven after missing out the last encounter against the Red Machines. After the last practice session at Central Park earlier morning, Subrata Bhattacharya sounded a little nostalgic and emotional about the team’s performance and tomorrow’s 90 minutes. “There is nothing to teach them more. They have shown their bravado and executed our plans. Kudos to them to confront all the odds. They are real heroes. Let’s hope for the best. East Bengal has a bunch of stars. We shouldn’t bow down to them without a hard fight.”
Though there has been a little bewilderment regarding the future of the team next season. Reportedly the players have shown their rage over salary and other issues. However, you would expect the United SC players to still play out of their skins to leave the ground on a high tomorrow evening. As reported by the coaching team, more or less the same eleven would be fielded while the attacking force would be comprising of none other than Eric Brown and Waheed Adakunle. Dhanachandra Singh, who suffered a little cramp today morning, would be fielded unless the injury is too serious. Bello Rasaq, skipper Deepak Mondal would be the vital cogs in the backline machinery while Mohammed Rafique, Biswajit Biswas, Souvik Chakraborty are expected to shoulder the midfield roles. Sangram Mukherjee would be handed the gloves to be the man under the woodwork.
East Bengal haven’t beaten United SC in the last five I-League meetings. In the I-league first-leg, the face-off ended in a 1-1 stalemate. But East Bengal got the better of United SC in the Calcutta League by a 2-0 margin. In the IFA Shield, they confronted twice, splitting the two games. In the Round Robin stage, East Bengal hammered a 2-0 win. Nevertheless United SC staged a sweeter vengeance, thanks to their penalty shoot win in the knockout stage.
The five-time I-League winning coach Armando Colaco wants full commitment from his players till the final whistle of the season, “Unfortunately we can’t win the title anymore but I have told the players to remain focused and secure the runners-up place.”
The match will kick-off at 5:30pm tomorrow at the Saltlake stadium in Kolkata with Ten Sports showing the match live.
