A little over halfway into the season, it felt like nothing could stop Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan from romping to their second consecutive I-League title. A comprehensive 2-0 victory over Mumbai FC on March 13 added to a season that seemed too good to be true – top of the table after 11 games and unbeaten as well.
And then they took their eyes off the ball.
To be fair, it would be difficult to blame them. On January 30, Bagan beat the Pune-based DSK Shivajians in a league game, three days after playing Singaporean club Tampines Rovers. They were then compelled to make the long journey to China to play Shandong Luneng on February 2 in Asia’s prestigious AFC Champions League. Their manager Sanjoy Sen’s request to the All Indian Football Federation to reschedule the league match fell on deaf ears. And then an angry outburst on the issue earned him an unprecedented eight-match ban (later reduced to four matches) and a steep fine.
Hence, when Bagan found themselves in a similar situation in March, they decided to take the path of least resistance. The original schedule would have required them to travel from hilly Aizawl to Hong Kong to play two matches, all in a span of three days. This time, the All India Football Federation gave them an option of shifting their match against Aizawl to a later date, but it came with a caveat – that date (March 26) fell during the international break where the team would be missing most of their first choice players on international duty.
Perhaps wary of what had happened earlier, Bagan accepted the terms and conditions. They may have also been guilty of complacency, considering Aizawl were bottom of the league and had only won twice until then. But as it happened, that match ended up being the turning point of Mohun Bagan's season. Missing a clutch of their first-team players, Mohun Bagan went down tamely 2-1 to a plucky attacking display from Aizawl FC.
So near and yet so far
Since then, Bagan's season has nosedived. From being a team that could score goals at will and was stingy at the back, they have now conceded almost the same number of goals in three matches that they conceded in the first eleven. After the defeat against Aizawl, they failed to win any of their three subsequent matches, going down to fierce rivals East Bengal and then only managing to come out with draws against Shillong Lajong and newbies DSK Shivajians.
In the process, their march to the title, which had looked quite inevitable, now needs a miracle. Bengaluru FC sit pretty on top of the table, needing just a couple of points from their next two games to win the 2016 I-League title. Bagan have only one game left and that is against Bengaluru FC on April 24, but it could very well turn out to be a dead rubber, if Bengaluru manage to get the win they require when they host Salgaocar on Sunday.
It has been a season of so close and yet so far for the Kolkata giants. Sanjoy Sen’s suspension and their defensive fragility cannot be unrelated. Sen’s influence during his team’s title-winning run came in for much praise. This year, his banishment from the dugout led to a definitive slip in performance from the defending champions, which could well have cost them the title.
But there have been other difficulties as well. Their influential Haitian playmaker Sony Norde was injured, greatly affecting the team’s performances. But there was more trouble – in an interview, Norde revealed that he was not happy about being forced to play in the important derby against East Bengal and went on to drop hints that he was planning on leaving the club at the end of the season.
All is not lost – the Kolkata giants can still win the league, with some help from Salgaocar, who play Bengaluru on Sunday. But if they are honest with themselves, they will know that they should have never been in this position in the first place. The title was theirs for the taking – and they blew it.
