East Bengal 4–1 Mohun Bagan
Event | 1997 Federation Cup | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
Date | 13 July 1997 | ||||||
Venue | Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata | ||||||
Man of the Match | Bhaichung Bhutia (East Bengal) | ||||||
Referee | Inayatullah Khan (Karnataka) | ||||||
Attendance | 134,000 | ||||||
Weather | Haze, 32 °C (90 °F)[1] |
The second semi-final of the
The match holds significance on many accounts. The coaches of the two teams,
Background
The
Coaches of Mohun Bagan and East Bengal Amal Dutta and Pradip Kumar Banerjee had seen success as players, and then as coaches from the 1970s well into the 1990s. As coach, Dutta had been known as a 'purist', a 'tactician' and an 'innovator'. Consequently, he had the reputation of winning games with young and lesser known players.
The coach of East Bengal, Banerjee, had the reputation as a pragmatist and was known for playing easily adaptable football with popular players to win games, much unlike Dutta. Known for his defensive tactics, which he called the Italian
In the fortnight before the game, although East Bengal were yet to beat Mohammedan in the quarter-final on 6 July to earn the right to play Mohun Bagan next, Dutta, and his counterpart, Banerjee, made statements about tactics their teams would adopt for the game. Rediff.com reported: "The atmosphere grew more and more tense as the match day approached. Tickets were sold in black, though the police did its best to dissuade fans from dealing with touts."[4] The derby always drew unprecedented crowds whenever and wherever played, and there had been many instances of violence in the past involving players, team officials and supporters. This led to Dutta appealing for a foreign referee to supervise the game and eventually a FIFA referee, Inayatullah Khan, was called in.[4]
Match
A record crowd of 131,781 had turned up for the game, over and above the hitherto official seating capacity of 120,000.[4] On the afternoon marked by hot and humid weather conditions, Banerjee made two tactical changes just before the game began. He replaced the defenders, veteran Ilyas Pasha and rookie Falguni Dutta, with the energetic pair of Dulal Biswas and Amitava Chanda. In what was a calculated gamble, he played Haggi Azande Abulista as the goalkeeper, who previously had never played a game of such magnitude.[2] He fielded the 4–4–2 formation to counter Dutta's 3–2–3–2. Another source cites that Dutta employed the 3–4–3 diamond formation.[11]
Summary
First half
Mohun Bagan began the game at a brisk pace earning seven corners in the first 25 minutes, but failed to convert any into goal. Chima Okorie and Abdul Khalique frequently swapped positions with Satyajit Chatterjee and Basudeb Mondal picking out their runs with through-passes splitting the defences of East Bengal. East Bengal stood the attacks led by their defender Sammy Omollo who marked Okorie whilst Naushad Moosa worked to minimize the aerial delivery toward the striker. The Bagan players, however, began showing signs of fatigue, as the first half-hour approached.[11] Their defenders, instead of marking Bhaichung Bhutia, attempted to repeatedly trap him offside. He managed to beat the trap that set off a sequence leading to East Bengal's first goal, in the 25th minute. He was deployed slightly towards the flanks with Haque as centre-forward. The Bagan defence made a save at the expense of a corner. Somatai Saiza's kick aimed at Bhutia, bounced off him to hit a Bagan defender and then to an unmarked Haque, who side-volleyed with his left-foot for a goal. The first half thus ended in 1–0 East Bengal's favour.[6]
Second half
Just a minute into the second half, East Bengal converted another corner kick, again from Saiza's left foot onto Bhutia, who promptly headed it into the bottom right corner of the net taking his team's lead 2–0. Desperate for an equaliser, Bagan began pushing harder, and manifested in the form of an Okorie-goal in the 66th minute.[12] He controlled Mondal's cross, from the right edge of the box, on his chest before volleying it into the net beating East Bengal's goalkeeper to take the scoreline to 1–2 in his team's favour. Exploiting Bagan's poor marking, and positioning of its high line of defence, Bhutia broke the offside trap time and again, speeding past his markers. Haque held on to the ball close to the half line, ran into the Bagan box before passing on for an overlapping Shamsi Reza who crossed over for Bhutia who, in turn, dribbled past a diving defender Ranjan Dey and goalkeeper Dora to find the net's top corner in the 85th minute.[2] Three minutes later, an unchallenged Bhutia ran into the box again and the ball rebounded off opponent midfielder Satyajit Chatterjee's feet as he tried to intercept Bhutia's pass to Haque. Bhutia tapped it home to complete his hat-trick and the scoreline showed 4–1 at full-time.[12]
Details
East Bengal
|
Mohun Bagan
|
|
|
|
Match rules
|
Aftermath
The match took place on the back of dwindling numbers of supporters at games in Kolkata and the press writing football off among Indians in terms of interest. However, the impact this game had had, was described by India Today thus: "A city and a sport rediscovered each other and Calcutta and soccer were locked again in a bizarre tango" and added, "It was the '60s and '70s revisited: it was mayhem, it was stirring."[8] The author also writes about how management of Mohun Bagan went for a more "telegenic" design of their team's jersey giving up a 119-year-old tradition of wearing "dull jerseys", upon the request of ESPN, whose subsidiary television channel Star Sports telecast the game.[8] The game was also telecast live by Doordarshan, the government funded broadcaster, which was significant in that, the only sport of which games was telecast live was cricket, owing to its popularity in the country.[13]
Speaking of the game, Bhutia said, "It was a great feeling to score a hat-trick on such a big occasion and it's true that it gave me a lot of media attention but I had to work even harder after that. For me you are only as good as your last game so I had to start from scratch again from the next match."[14] Despite the failure of his 'diamond' formation in the game, Dutta, however, went on with it, and was able to exact "revenge" in a replay of the match within a month, when his team beat East Bengal 1–0 at the final of the Calcutta Football League.[7]
References
- ^ "Weather History for VECC – July, 1997". Weather Underground. Archived from the original on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
- ^ a b c d Sengupta, Somnath (27 July 2013). "Mohun Bagan and East Bengal: A Derby to Remember". inbedwithmaradona.com. Archived from the original on 4 February 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
- ^ "Kolkata Derby: From the history book". All India Football Federation. the-aiff.com. 8 December 2012. Archived from the original on 5 February 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d Bhaskaran, K. (19 July 1997). "Beneath the box office lurks hidden danger". rediff.com. Archived from the original on 5 March 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
- ^ Chattopadhyay, Hariprasad (11 September 2007). "Head to head in Fed cup". telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on 29 June 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d Sengupta, Somnath (4 July 2011). "Tactical Evolution of Indian Football: (Part III) – PK Banerjee – Amal Dutta- Nayeemuddin". thehardtackle.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
- ^ a b Bhattacharya, Nilesh (23 July 2016). "Diamond Touch". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 15 October 2016. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
- ^ a b c Namboodiri, Udayan (28 July 1997). "Kick start". India Today. Archived from the original on 5 February 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
- ^ "Celebrating P.K.Banerjee's Birthday: 15 facts you must know about the legend". goal.com. 23 June 2016. Archived from the original on 5 November 2016. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
- ^ "20th "Kalyani Black Label" Federation Cup 1997". indianfootball.de. Archived from the original on 4 February 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
- ^ a b Islam, Mohammad Amin-ul (September 2014). Beyond the Goal: The Biography of Baichung Bhutia. Random House India.
- ^ a b Bose, Saibal (14 July 1997). "Bhutia's barrage batters Bagan". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 31 August 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
- ^ Ritesh (17 March 2013). "Down the memory lane – 'The Diamond demolition' in Kolkata derby". Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
- ^ Ghoshal, Amoy (13 July 2013). "July 13 1997: Bhaichung Bhutia's historic leap towards greatness". sportskeeda.com. Archived from the original on 5 February 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2017.