Mahindra United stormed into the semifinals of the Durand Cup defeating East Bengal in their final quarterfinal encounter at the Dr. Ambedkar Stadium today.
After suffering their third straight defeat by the hands of Shillong Lajong FC, East Bengal went down egregiously against defending champions Mahindra United to take their tally to four defeats in a row at the start of the season - a poor record, which has never occured in the club history!
The dejected faces of the players and as well the one of the coach Subhash Bhowmick tells the whole story of the depleted Kolkata giants, who have been the weakest link so far in the IFA Shield as well as Durand Cup.
Subhash Bhowmick's head is certainly on the chopping block and that too when he took charge of everything right from the word go. If Bhowmick has failed with his ideas, the players too have failed to do justice to their own performance.
East Bengal made a sea of changes to their starting eleven. Goalkeeper Arup Debnath replaced Abhra Mondal under the bar, while Govin Moirangthem Singh, Syed Rahim Nabi and Saheb Ali Gharami started at the back with Harmanjot Khabra being retained from the last match squad. Czech midfielder Jan Berger was replaced by Mehtab Hussain in the centre, while coach Subhash Bhowmick stick to the striking duo of Subhash Singh and Argentine striker Sebastian Omar Monesterolo.
Both teams failed to break the deadlock in the first half, while Mahindra came close to notch in the opener on two occasions. India and Mahindra United striker Sushil Kumar Singh's header was cut off by Arup Debnath in the 2nd minute, while Pradeep's volley was cut off brilliantly by Debnath in the 3rd minute.
On the changing ends Mahindra scored two goals in a span of three minutes to place them in the second semifinals against Mohun Bagan on September 20.
Mahindra United's Serbian midfielder Svetozmar Mijin was replaced by Susanth Mathew around the hour mark and Mahindra found their pace in the offensive line. Susanth provided a pass to Steven Dias and the Indian international's looping cross from the right was met by Mohamed Rafi to give the all important lead to the Jeepmen in the 63rd minute. Three minutes later Rafi doubled the lead when he crowded into the net after Saheb Ali Gharami failed to clear the ball in the box.
The hapless East Bengal team never looked like a threat to theJeepmen in the entire game. However, they successfully curtailed Mahindra United in the first session, but were totally outclassed in the second half as Mahindra United made their way to the second semifinal ahead of Shillong Lajong FC on a better goal difference with four points from two matches.
Source: IndianFootball.com
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Saturday 19 September 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.