ISL-11 opener: Familiar foes back in business

KOLKATA: For a league which is yet to reach its teen and celebrating merely its 11th birthday, the rivalry between Mohun Bagan SG and Mumbai City FC is fast becoming the face of Indian Super League. If there’s one showdown that elevates a match of 90 minutes to a drama of fluctuating fortunes, this is it. If there’s one fixture which always sets two teams at loggerheads with each other raising the bar and gaining a foothold in the title march with all its emotional and volcanic airs, this is it.
Their duopoly of last season’s league is still fresh in many minds.If Mohun Bagan pipped Mumbai City to their maiden Winners’ Shield, the Islanders had their revenge on their way to clinching their second ISL Cup, bearding the green-and-maroon lion in their den.
However, as the two sides, champions in their own rights, are kick-starting a new season of the league five months down the line, the contest at the Salt Lake Stadium on Friday may not be so much about its distinctive, title-defining noise, but both will look to make a I-mean-business statement.
Mohun Bagan’s newly-appointed coach Jose Molina, though, is not a man willing to live in the past.
“For me, it will be a new match, absolutely different to the last ISL final. We have to work in the present and the only thing that exists in my brain is Mumbai City,” the Spaniard, who once guided now defunct ATK to their ISL title in 2016, told a news conference on Thursday.
By Molina’s own admission, Indian football has since changed a lot. So are his Mohun Bagan and rivals Mumbai.
New recruit and Australian league all-time leading scorer Jamie Maclaren is yet to complete a full training session with the first team and stays out of reckoning for the ISL-11 opener.
But it’s not his attack — where his wealth of options is anybody’s envy — where lies a spot of bother. If the Durand Cup is any yardstick, Bagan’s defensive fragility requires immediate attention from the coach.
Molina insisted that since all teams are in pre-season mode and yet to be at their best physically, early setbacks should be accepted as an integral part of a learning curve.
Mohun Bagan will welcome a fit Spanish centre-back Alberto Rodriguez but Mumbai are capable of testing the home team’s defence with quick wing-play.
Petr Kratky’s visitors may have lost Apuia to Bagan in the transfer window, but in Lallianzuala Chhangte, Vikram Partap Singh and newcomer Brandon Fernandes, they have quite a game-changing domestic stars. In Spanish playmaker Jon Toral and Greek attacker Nikos Karelis, they are also building a new side ready to make a mark.
Aware of Mumbai’s threat, Molina said: “The plan is to defend as a whole team. We need to defend and attack together and try to see that they don’t have the ball for a long time. Their wingers are dangerous, but they have other players who can be dangerous too.”
Unlike in the past, this is sort of a juncture match. Their rivalry now resumes with a tournament-opener but, make no mistake, those old vibes of one-upmanship and competitiveness will be there in plenty to define this contest as well.