FREE KICK - P.K. Banerjee

Mohun Bagan have won many a major trophies during their 126-year-old existence, but the I-League title they bagged in Bangalore, on Sunday night, was truly a historic achievement. Sceptics may accuse me of exaggeration, but I have several reasons to call this triumph a momentous one.

The victory of Sanjay Sen's boys at the Kanteerava Stadium should also be seen as a turnaround for Calcutta football.

While Mohun Bagan won their previous league title 13 years ago, East Bengal, too, could never come on top since 2004. There was a feeling around that Calcutta football had forever been finished and such suggestions always left me depressed.

I am also extremely happy that an Indian coach - Sanjay Sen - steered Mohun Bagan to the summit. Undermining the success of the Indian coaches has become a kind of a fashion these days. I sincerely hope that more Indian coaches would be employed by I-League teams in the near future.

Though I am very pleased that the I-League trophy will travel to Calcutta, my only regret is that it could have been done in a more convincing manner.

On Sunday, Bagan were a better side and should have won the match by an outright margin. Instead, they allowed themselves to get into a panicky situation and could score only in the 87th minute through Bello Rasaq to snatch a draw after John Johnson scored for Bengaluru FC in the first half.

True, a draw was enough to reach the target, but given the trend of the match, the green and maroon side should have pocketed all three points.

In fact, a happier situation would have emerged had East Bengal finished better than being fourth. They had ample opportunities. The disastrous defeat against Lajong FC in their last match didn't really reflect their true potential.

East Bengal had a wonderful pair of foreign strikers in Ranty Martins and Dudu Omagbemi, but sadly they dropped too many points unexpectedly. The change of coach midway through the season did not actually help them.

Overall, I found the I-League season rather satisfactory, though the relegation of Dempo came as a shocker. I feel their club management was too busy with their newly-acquired ISL franchise, FC Goa, and it resulted in one of Dempo's worst results in recent years.

Back to Sunday's match, Bagan were themselves to be blamed for not winning the tie. If only had Katsumi Yusa not held on to the ball so much and Balwant Singh not missed a virtual sitter, Bagan would have sent Bengaluru packing.

The hosts' goalkeeper, Lalthuammawia Ralte, played a stellar role despite his rather unimpressive height.

I was also impressed by Bagan striker Sony Norde. The Haitian didn't find the target, but kept the opponents on their toes with his clever movements.

That the Bengaluru side could never become over-aggressive was because of Norde's continuous and dominating presence in their area.

He was definitely unlucky not to get a goal during the closing stages of the first half when his shot hit the post. He was by far the most exciting player of this league.

At the same time, I was truly surprised by Bengaluru coach Ashley Westwood's decision to not field Sunil Chetri till the 90th minute. Leaving the country's best striker on the sidelines was an unpardonable act - it simply made Bagan's job easier.

Chetri is a champion of making the best use of the free zone and he is by far the country's best goal-getter. While I understood that he was not in his best of forms, but his presence was needed in a big match like this.

On Sunday, both the goals were scored by foreigners. Like the previous years, not many goals were scored by Indian players this time too. Pity that the five top scorers in the league are all foreigners.

The national coach, Stephen Constantine, would have to depend heavily on Chetri and Robin Singh in the World Cup qualifiers, though I am yet to be fully convinced by the abilities of the latter.

Among the other Indians, Bagan goalkeeper Debjit Majumdar is a promising player, but needs to play more to gain experience.

Eugenesen Lyngdoh and Jackichand Singh are quality footballers and I am sure Constantine has special plans for both of them.

Facts & figures

Mohun Bagan’s fourth national league triumph finally ended their trophy drought that lasted for over five years. The following are some interesting facts about Bagan’s success stories over the years: 

The last trophy that Bagan won was the CFL, back on May 25, 2010. Having finally won this season’s I-League, they thus broke the drought after five years and five days.

Bagan won the national league after 13 years. The trophy will be returning to Calcutta after 11 years. East Bengal were the last team from the city to win the title, back in 2003-04.

 The national league comes to Calcutta for the first time after being re-christened as the I-League.

Bagan are now the second best when it comes to winning the national league. Dempo SC have won it five times. This was Bagan’s fourth national league triumph — 1997-98, 1999-2000, 2001-02, 2014-15.

Just like Bello Rasaq did on this occasion, another Nigerian — Abdul Saliu — had scored the deciding goal for Bagan (versus Churchill Brothers, in Margao) the last time they won the national league, back in 2001-02. 

Incidentally, the goals were Saliu and Bello’s first and only strikes in the respective editions of the competition.

Shilton Paul is the second goalkeeper, after Hemanta Dora in 1999-2000, to be the captain of a national league-winning side for Bagan. Alok Das (1997-98) and Debjit Ghosh (2001-02) were the captains on the other two occasions.

Hariprasad Chattopadhyay