KINGFISHER EAST BENGAL
V
DEMPO SPORTS CLUB
Tau Devi Lal Stadium, Gurgaon
02/11/2010 05:30 PM IST – Live on 24 Ghonta
Finally the Indian football fans can sniff the sweet smell of I-League, as the AIFF version of “FA Community Shield”, namely the ONGC SUPER CUP, is scheduled to be played on Wednesday, December 1st between Kingfisher East Bengal and Dempo SC. The Super Cup embarks the beginning of Indian football season. The Indian Super Cup was started in 1997 by the AIFF as a playoff match between the National Football League champions and the Federation Cup winners. The prestigious cup, which eventually decides the champion of champions in Indian football, has been won twice by East Bengal, Mohan Bagan and Dempo SC.
Super Cup was last held in 2007-08 season when Dempo Sports Club defeated East Bengal by 1-0. This year’s edition will again see current I-League Champions Dempo Sports Club from Goa lock their horns against Kolkata giant East Bengal Club, who recently had been crowned Federation Cup Champions. Having already won the Super Cup twice before, both the clubs have a chance to complete a hattrick of the coveted trophy this time around. Initially the match was scheduled to be played at New Delhi’s Ambedkar Stadium, but the AIFF was impelled to change the venue. The reason why the Ambedkar Stadium isn’t available is due to the fact that the stadium is engaged and reserved for India’s National School Football Championship in the under-17 and under-14 age groups, namely the Subroto Mukherjee Cup. As the Ambedkar Stadium in Delhi won’t be available, the match has been shifted to the Tau Devi Lal Stadium in the Ch. Devi Lal Sports Complex in Sector 38, Gurgaon.
Team News and Tactical Brief
East Bengal
So far East Bengal have qualified to play the Super Cup a record 4 times, the most by any club. In their fifth appearance, East Bengal, as expected, would be flying high with confidence, after they beat arch rivals Mohun Bagan for the third consecutive time this season to be crowned the Kolkata League Champions. A convincing and comprehensive victory saw the Red and Gold brigade grab the 32nd KFL trophy in their renowned trophy cabinet. Trevor Morgan’s team has been on a roll, only to be halted by Chirag United in this year’s Durand Cup semi’s. They have won 27 matches this season and lost only once. Already they have bagged three silverwares and they will be favorites to clinch the fourth of the season in Super Cup.
The unstopable East Bengal warship
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The coach has given the team a new flexible and ever so attacking shape .The attacking 4-3-1-2, which can easily be moulded into a 4-3-3 when required. Penn Orji has been given that “top-of-the-diamond” role, which enables him to play all around the park making him a dangerous prospect to contain. He was instrumental in the recently concluded derby at YBK winning the Man of the Match award, which clinched the KFL title for East Bengal. As always, Mehtab would play the deep-lying playmaker role, taking over the “back-of-the-diamond” position and do all the dirty work in the mid field along with being the starting point for most of the attacks.
East Bengal is set to miss four reliable players in Baichung Bhutia, Rahim Nabi, Mehrajuddin Wadoo and Renedy Singh, who are currently busy with the national camp. Moreover, with reliable defenders Uga Okpara, Naoba Singh and Nirmal Chettri out of the squad for the tie due to injuries, there is no room for slip ups for the depleted defense consisting of Gurwinder Singh, Rajib Ghosh, Saikat Saha Roy and Sunil Kumar, with Ranty Martins and Joaquim Abrahanches hot on their heels. Young Saikat Saha Roy has shown enough maturity in the limited opportunities and coach Morgan will hope that he can repeat his heroic performance against Mohun Bagan in the last match.
Tolgay Ozbey has a slight niggle in the ankle and if he could not recover in time, Budiram Tudu will partner Robin Singh upfront in the attacking third. Robin Singh, the current heart-throb of Red & Gold faithful, is certainly enjoying a purple patch scoring 4 goals in 3 derby matches this season, he is expected to be on the scoring chart in this game as well. Vasum is still nursing his hamstring injury and Harmanjot Singh Khabra has been ruled out of this game with a shoulder injury; so it is upto veteran Alvito D’Cunha and young but promising Sanju Pradhan to marshal the wings for Red & Golds.
Possible Starting Line-up: Sandip Nandy, Rajib Ghosh, Saikat Saha Roy, Gurwinder Singh, Soumik Dey, Mehtab Hossain, Penn Orji, Alvito D’Cunha, Sanju Pradhan, Robin Singh, Tolgay Ozbey.
Dempo
The defending ONGC I-League Champions are up for the match too. Coach Mauricio Afonso is determined that his team will come out with flying colors when they clash with East Bengal for the Super Cup title. The AFC Football federation yesterday announced the teams participating in the lucrative 2011 AFC Champions league. Dempo SC will once again get a chance to play in the prestigious league as the I-League champion, after they were knocked out in the qualifying final of the last edition.
After the disappointment of the Federation Cup, Dempo would certainly like to Kick off their season with a emphatic victory over the boys from Kolkata. Last time these two sides met in the Super Cup, Dempo managed to win it by a narrow 1-0 margin and they would leave no stones unturned to repeat that score line. The Goan giants would miss international stopper back Mahesh Gawli, attacking midfielder Anthony Pereira, Steven Dias, first choice goalkeeper Subhashish Roy Choudhury and right back Valerian Rebello, first four for national duties and the latter is recovering from injury. Playmaker Beto will once again be the key player for Dempo and he needs to bring out his top game to unsettle the East Bengal defence by feeding defense-splitting balls to Nigerian hit-man Ranty Martins. Former Churchill Brothers playmaker Ogba Kalu Nanna is expected to partner Beto in the central midfield. Joaquim Abranches is another player to watch out for. He was instrumental in India’s Asian Games campaign and would look to continue in the same fashion for club colors as well.
Possible Starting Line-up: Lakshmikanth Kattimani, John Dias, Peter Carvalho, Creson Antao, Debabrata Roy, Beto, Kalu Nanna, Micky Fernandez, Godwin Franco, Ranty Martins, Joachim Abrahanches
TheHardTackle’s PLAYER TO WATCH OUT FOR:
Robin Singh (East Bengal):
Robin Singh is in the form of his life and is our man to watch out for. His spectacular brace against fellow Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan in such a high profile game is a manifest for the statement above. He has carried forward the red hot form from Mohammedan SC Platinum Jubilee Cup, where he was the highest scorer. He has the potential to be the next big thing in the Indian football arena after Baichung Bhutia.
Joaquim Abrahanches (Dempo) :
Joaquim Abranches has improved leaps and bounces after the SAFF Cup 2009 victory in Bangladesh. He can really surprise the defenders with his sudden shift of gear. If he can gel well with veteran Ranty Martins upfront, they can surely make East Bengal defense line something to think about.
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TheHardTackle’s PREDICTION:
East Bengal 2-1 Dempo
Fresh from their KFL victory, it’s going to be a very difficult task for Dempo to stop the East Bengal warship. We can expect both teams to be cagey at the start of the match, but if East Bengal can score early, it will be a comprehensive victory for the Red and Gold brigade even with this depleted squad. We, at TheHardTackle, expect a hat-trick of Super Cups and a sweet revenge for the East Bengal side.
~ Kunwar Deep Singh