Beto & Co. are all ears as Mohun Bagan coach Subrata Bhattacharya makes a point at the club ground on Saturday, the eve of the IFA Shield final. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: In the 110th year of the IFA Shield, Mohun Bagan have won the trophy 20 times and have finished runners-up another 14 times. With four abandonments, and this year, it accounts for 39 final entries.

While this bit of statistic starts sounding impressive, one must remember that only once have Mohun Bagan met a foreign team in a Shield final (Ararat Club of the USSR in 1978, the year Mohun Bagan got their floodlights) and the result was a consolation 2-2 draw in pouring rain.

It takes little credit away from a club which has beaten East Bengal en route to the title round, but Myanmar Finance and Revenue FC have nine national players in their ranks, and their passing game is talk of town, especially in this green-maroon corner of the Maidan.

Mohun Bagan?s memories with Myanmar are many and recent too. So when coach Subrata Bhattacharya says ?that (their passing game) is what we have to be cautious of,? it carries weight. Then, again, when he compares the Myamnarese with ?Air India or Dempo?, it seems a bit subjective.

The other worry for Bhattacharya will be Mehtab Hussain. He?ll not be there at the Salt Lake Stadium Sunday evening, having picked up two bookings, and ?it is surely a big loss for the team,? says the coach. Amit Das is likely to replace him. Abhay Kumar?s injury keeps him out as well, and even though Tomba Singh is back, off the national campers? list, he isn?t fit enough to take the field. ?Even Noel Wilson is a tired man? Another 120-minute match will be difficult to handle.?

Exhaustion, though, isn?t what Eduardo Coelho will be bothered about. ?It is the final,? he said. ?That is when we forget all about our physical worries. We just play to win.?

The worry, really, apart from the passing, are three players in the Myamnar ranks ? medios Aung Kyaw Moe and Yan Paing, and attacker Myo Hlaing Win. ?They are the ones to watch out for,? Bhattacharya said. ?They will be the problem people tomorrow,? said a worried defender Coelho.

Bhattacharya seems to have sorted out the basics of the Myamnarese. ?Their game is somewhat like the early TFA kids?. You try to play into their passing and you are gone. Let them come on, and then take off from the defence area with long balls,? he said. Sounds good (even better, considering the Myanmarese haven?t shown a decent defensive line), except that the Bagan defence has to perform as it has been lately. It just might be a tall stake.

The forward line, though, is something Bhattacharya depends on. ?Ashim (Biswas) may not be fully fit, but he has his way with the ball? Roberto Mendes Silva ?Beto? is among goals (though he has missed many too). I?ll tell them again tomorrow, we need this victory desperately. We must win.? Not the Shield in particular, it?s the trophy motivation. ?If Jesus wants me to, I will score tomorrow,? reflected Beto. ?I will try.?

Bhattacharya, of course, isn?t waiting for divine intervention. He was talking about Mehrajuddin Wadao, back in the snatch job, and Sunil Chhetri in the attack. He has a plan he hopes will work.

Chhetri, incidentally, is also in the field of view of Myanmarese coach Myint Kyu. ?That man, (Chhetri) and Beto, they are the ones to watch,? said Kyu. ?Actually, I feel better to have to face Bagan in the final. Not because East Bengal are any stronger team, but because we have seen Bagan and have had a feel of them and we know how to handle them.?

Kyu sees the Bagan defence a bit suspect and intends using the wings to effect. But the similarity is that if they win, this will be the first ever win on foreign turf for any Myanmarese team, ever. They, too, need this trophy desperately.

It was way back in 1929 last, when a Myanmarese team (Rangoon Customs) had been in the Shield final. They had lost 0-2 to Second Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles. A trifle dated, that feat.

TEAMS

MOHUN BAGAN (from): Prasanta Dora, Dulal Biswas, Rajesh Meetei, Mehraj-uddin Wadao, Dulal Biswas, Eduardo Coelho, Amit Das, Noel Wilson, Dharamjit Singh, Biman Mondal, Basudeb Mondal, Roberto Mendes Silva ?Beto?, Sunil Chhetri, Ashim Biswas.

MYANMAR FINANCE & REVENUE FC (from): Aung Aung Oo, Khin Maung Tun, Moe Kyaw Thu, Min Min Aung, Soe Lin Tun, Soe Myat Min, Aung Kyaw Moe, Yan Paing, Lwin Oo, Zaw Htike, Myo Hlaing Win, Hein Zeyar Kyaw, Aung Kyaw Myint, Thu Ra Aung, Kyaw Kyaw Soe, Kyaw Thu Ra, Tun Tun Win, Aye Min Tun.