E-Paper
IFA Shield title changes mood of Mohun Bagan fans
Mohun Bagan won the IFA Shield final against East Bengal, triumphing 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw, turning fan frustration into celebration.
Kolkata: On signing as Gremio coach three weeks after presiding over the worst defeat in Brazil’s World Cup history, Luiz Felipe Scolari had said he needed a hug. For 31 minutes in the IFA Shield final against East Bengal, Mohun Bagan Super Giant would have wanted that from their supporters. It took them all night to get that.
By the time Mehtab Singh converted the last penalty that made Mohun Bagan champions, winning the tie-breaker 5-4 after open play ended 1-1, appreciation had replaced anger. As Mohun Bagan players hugged, East Bengal’s side of the stands emptied. They had been the better team for most of this derby but East Bengal’s substitute goalie Debjit Majumder couldn’t make any save in the tie-breaker. So, Jay Gupta’s penalty being stopped by Vishal Kaith made the difference.
Mohun Bagan fans had turned up in good numbers for the Kolkata derby. “It is not good that fans are not happy,” head coach Jose Molina had said one day before the final. But even if they were upset, Molina had asked – pleaded was more like it – them to back the team “for 90 minutes. If in another moment, the fans are upset it can be okay.”
So they came, with banners that identified the fan clubs they belonged to. At kick-off, they were all removed, leaving half of the Salt Lake stadium looking bare and in stark contrast to the other side where a banner that occupied the pride of place took a dig at Mohun Bagan pulling out of the Asian Champions League 2 for the second time in as many years.
And they stayed quiet. A foul on Lalengmawia Ralte and on Sahal Abdul Samad didn’t get them to roar in anger. When Liston Colaco moved up early in the second half, it didn’t feel like Mohun Bagan were at an amphitheatre that had been their fortress all of 2024-25.
The noise, the energy was all coming from one side. Before and during the 125th IFA Shield – a tournament they had embellished by being the first Indian team to win it in 1911 – Mohun Bagan supporters had made their displeasure evident by calling the players cowards. This felt like more of the same.
Mohun Bagan players would have thought the mood had shifted when they were awarded a penalty in the 31st minute when Anwar Ali pulled down Jamie Maclaren. But Jason Cummings, a fox in the box who rarely missed his mark last term, sent his shot into orbit. Then, Moroccan Hamid Ahadad put East Bengal ahead with a tap-in after Tom Aldred and Vishal Kaith failed to stop Mahesh Naorem’s delivery.
That was in the 35th minute. In the next 10 minutes, Ahadad could have got a hattrick. Instead, he curled into the upright in the 42nd minute and then shot out after Naorem and Edmund Lalrindika had combined to find him unmarked inside the penalty area. A first half that would have killed the contest ended 1-1 when Ralte scored from range with a blast reminiscent of his strike against Jamshedpur FC in the second semi-final of last season’s ISL.
For the second time on Saturday, Mohun Bagan fans got behind their team. The banners stayed folded but in the 85th minute they ensured that the name of only one team would not swirl in the stadium. It was the same when Mehtab Singh’s header was tipped over by East Bengal goalie Prabhsukan Gill, also the last action of regulation time.
The mood was changing, the tide shifting. They asked for Dimitri Petratos to be brought on. And when Kaith asked for the crowd to back Singh during the penalties, they obliged. For a blink-and-you-miss moment, the banners came out too. For the night, Mohun Bagan fans were willing to forget, if not forgive.
