Edmilson scored both goals

Ludhiana: This was a gift for his fans. East Bengal coach Subrata Bhattacharya plotted Mahindra United’s downfall with a well-constructed 2-1 win in the final of the Federation Cup at the Guru Nanak Dev Stadium here on Saturday.

Bhattacharya’s boys repaid his faith with some sterling show, Edmilson Marques leading the way with two goals in the first half.

This was East Bengal’s first Federation Cup title in 11 years and fifth overall. It was also their first in 22 years outside Calcutta. Bhattacharya had talked of a gift for his supporters and the players made that dream come true.

One man on either side made the difference. Edmilson by his presence and NP Pradeep by his absence.

Sunil Kumar, Mahindra’s replacement for Pradeep, was a disaster. He spent only 42 minutes before being sent off for a foul on Edmilson. In between, he also conceded a penalty to allow East Bengal take the lead.

Mahindra, playing with ten players, deserve praise for stretching East Bengal. The hard work put in by Ajayan, substitute Sukhwinder Singh and Andrews Pomeyie in the last half hour left East Bengal’s defence gasping for breath. Pity the equaliser remained elusive for Mahindra, despite the referee adding 10 minutes of injury time.

To say that East Bengal were ineffective in the second half will not be correct. They had two chances, but Asim Biswas and Syed Rahim Nabi failed to cash in on them. Stretched too much, a limping Edmilson finally made way for Dipendu Biswas.

East Bengal had a confident Subrata Paul under the bar, and despite some faulty clearances, the defence held firm when it mattered.

In the first half, Mahindra’s gameplan was simple. Like in the semi-final against Dempo, Derek Pereira’s boys didn’t allow the opponents much space and time, especially in the midfield.

Close markings and quick tackles were the call of the day. It was enough to make life on the pitch miserable for East Bengal’s two playmakers — Alvito D’Cunha and Nabi.

The ploy was successful till Mahindra took it too far and conceded a penalty in the 35th minute. Defender Sunil Kumar brought down a struggling Edmilson inside the area for reasons best known to him. The Brazilian was too good for Sandeep Nandy under the Mahindra bar.

Once Edmilson struck his fifth goal of the tournament, the game livened up, the last 10 minutes of the first half being an action-packed affair. As if conceding the penalty was not enough, Sunil Kumar then fouled Edmilson again near his left touchline in the 42nd minute. It didn't take referee K Shankar much to give the errant Mahindra defender marching orders.

The add-on time in the first half resulted in two goals. Suddenly high on confidence, Edmilson put East Bengal further ahead with a skilful strike. He received the ball on the right, well outside the box, and got past Ravanan. Edmilson noticed an advancing Nandy out of his position.

He produced a crafty dipping shot that sailed over the outstretched hands of the goalkeeper. Only a while earlier Nandy had left his post to foil the Edmilson in the nick of time.

East Bengal’s celebrations had barely died down when Mehrajuddin Wadoo did a Sunil Kumar by charging unfairly at Minga Deco. Manjit Singh converted in style to keep alive Mahindra hopes.

Pereira erred in his tactics. Given East Bengal’s current form, the Mumbai team had reason to act physical, but the robust tacklings only put his players at a disadvantage.

His foreign recruits acted more as physical spoilers in the middle instead of trying to play in tandem with two fine ball players — Ajayan and Steven Dias. When Mahindra finally got their act together, they had only 10 men left on the field.

Teams

East Bengal: Subroto Paul; Surkumar Singh, M. Suresh, Majek Bolaji and Saumik Dey, Syed Rahim Nabi, Mehrajuddin Wadoo (Abdul Samed, 81st ), Jayanta Sen and Alvito D’Cunha (Dipankar Roy, 74th ); Asim Biswas and Edmilson Marques (Dipendu Biswas, 90th).

Mahindra United: Sandeep Nandy; Sunil Kumar, Harpreet Singh and D. Ravanan; Steven Dias (Mohammed Rafi, 76th), Sushant Mathew, Djiaja Pierre, Manjit Singh (Surojit Bose, 77th) and K. Ajayan; Dico Minga (Sukhwinder Singh, 46th ) and Andrews Pomeyie.

Referee: S. Shankar (Tamil Nadu).

EAST BENGAL’S SUCCESSES

1978 (Coimbatore): EB 0 Mohun Bagan 0 (joint winners, after the final and the replay ended goalless)
1980 (Calcutta): EB 1 (Mohammed Habib) MB 1 (Mihir Bose) (joint winners)
1985 (Bangalore): EB 1 (Jamshed Nassiri) MB 0
1996 (Calcutta, June-August): EB 2 (Tushar Rakshit, Raman Vijayan) Dempo 1 (Camilo Gonsalvez)
2007 (Ludhiana): EB 2 (Edmilson 2) Mahindra United 1 (Manjit Singh)