East Bengal coach Carlos Roberto Pereira da Silva with the scorers — Alvito D’Cunha (left) and Ashim Biswas — at the East Bengal ground on Wednesday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: East Bengal on Wednesday finally brought a brief spell of uncertainty to normalcy in the ongoing CFL Premier Division.

Following Mohun Bagan’s loss to Calcutta Port Trust and Mohammedan Sporting’s draw with Railway FC, East Bengal put all the fears of opening blues to rest with a convincing 2-0 win over George Telegraph.

Never in the history of the local League — the Premier Division is a more professionally-run, modern extension of the old competition — had all the so-called three title-contenders failed to win their opening match. And that so-called ‘record’ remains intact.

Captain Alvito D’Cunha’s inspirational show, Ashim Biswas’ scintillating debut for the red-and-golds, Vincent Pires’ brilliant play down the wings and the exhibition of a bit Brazilian style intertwined to help the new coach Carlos Roberto Pereira da Silva’s record intact. According to his claim, he has never lost an opening match throughout his coaching career involving a number of clubs across the globe.

Following a barren first-half, Alvito — who is captaining any side for the first time in his career — broke the deadlock in the 70th minute. Having claimed the ball near the central circle, he dodged past one rival, nutmegged another and took a shot from the distance.

The suddenness and direction of his effort was so accurate that the ball took a bad bounce in front of goalkeeper Swarup Das and almost gatecrashed into the nets, taking full advantage of the slippery ground.

That goal was a perfect culmination for someone who looked extra-charged up in leading the side, switching flanks at breathtaking speed and even once scuppering an opponent attack as the last man in defence! He was rightly adjudged Man-of-the Match.

The East Bengal captain’s exit in the 73rd minute also marked the debut of another in the team’s colour. Ashim — whose stint with Mohun Bagan was highlighted by injuries and the association with Salgaocar never matched his promising start to international career — couldn’t have asked for any better appearance than this. Within three minutes of his introduction, he scored the second goal of the match, providing finishing touches to a Pires corner.

If Alvito was the inspiration behind East Bengal’s transformation from the struggling to the scintillating and Ashim gelling well with the mood, Pires definitely played the flawless role of a prompter.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that he strutted and fretted his hour once the captain left the stage and took it to another level so that the rest could sniff at more chances against a tiring, frustrating George Telegraph.

True, East Bengal were just too experienced, too strong and too clinical compared to their opponents, but Pires provided the base on which the home team enjoyed the advantage.

The match could also be a precursor to how the supporters can expect East Bengal to be looking as the season wears on. The strategy of playing in short passes as long as possible before attacking the rivals’ box from the flanks or through the middle is distinctly Brazilian in look.

Teams

East Bengal: Abhra Mondal; Surya Bikash Chakraborty (Vincent Pires, 46), Covan Lawrence (Anupam Sarkar, 55), Gurpreet Singh, Soumik Dey; Jayanta Sen, Dipankar Roy, Debabrata Roy, Syed Rahim Nabi, Alvito D’Cunha (Ashim Biswas, 73); Vimal Pariyar.

George Telegraph: Swarup Das; Mohon Chakraborty, Paban Das (Goutam Thakur, 74), Shyam Mondal, Dipak Singh; Manik Barman, Amit Biswas, Swarup Chatterjee, Gour Naskar, Abdul Rauf Khan (Ashim Das, 68); Sheikh Sanjib.

Referee: Udayan Haldar.