JOSE MARCIO BARRETO is a name that may not mean much in a sea of football talent that Brazil is well known for. But the Brazilian is making waves in Indian football. Only a few months ago he had emerged the top-scorer in the National Football League and now in his second season with McDowell Mohun Bagan he is the team's lynchpin all again. Undoubtedly Barreto is a sensational find for the Kolkata side. His prolific scoring might have failed to get his team the NFL title by a whisker but his presence, further fortified by the Nigerian Abdul Lateef Seriki, formed the essence in Bagan's 11th title-triumph in the Federation Cup in 14 appearances in the final.
It is doubtful if any club could improve on that in many years to come. Aside from the glittering trophy, the team received Rs. 10 lakhs as prize money. Barreto, who top-scored with four goals, was adjudged the 'Player of the Tournament' and received a cash prize of Rs.1 lakh.
Starved of fresh talent, the national selectors - P. K. Banerjee, Sukhwinder Singh and Gabriel Joseph - must have craved for players such as Barreto and Seriki to lift the drooping image of Indian football. What is special about them is the way they search and grab opportunities, often making a tough task look easy. The one goal each that the two scored in the final against Dempo aptly summed up their prodigious abilities. Consider for instance the goal scored by Barreto. The action was in the Dempo half and a rank bad clearing effort sent the ball high and spinning backwards. James Singh rushed to challenge three defenders trying to raise a phalanx. The ball dropped and instantly got deflected towards the fringe of the box. Even as every pair of eyes in the Nehru Stadium and on the turf was glued to the emerging confusion at the Dempo end, Barreto came charging in, as if from nowhere. One swing of his right foot and the ball, in a flash, streaked past a jungle of legs to leave the goalkeeper Francis Fernandes merely watching as it beat him to his right and into the net. A great goal made even greater considering that there was no other opening in the rival defence. So guarded was the Dempo approach conscious of what many perceived would be an unequal task for it against a famed opponent in the title-round.
It was a different matter that Dempo exhibited remarkable fighting spirits and took the fight to the rival camp, time and again. But the team had neither a Barreto nor a Seriki to cap the daring raids and that in a nutshell separated the Kolkata side from the Goan outfit. What Seriki was capable of was displayed in his previous outing and it was with another world class act, a top of the box blast to the roof of the net in running motion, that he sealed Dempo's fate and confirmed his team's success.
Only such sparks make club football so invigorating and have given the Federation Cup competition all the lustre. And yet it is an irony which only the AIFF can explain as to why this premier tourney should have taken a chequered course since its inception in 1977 to ultimately become a non-starter for two years after the 1998 edition. For three years from 1996, the Federation even went to the extent of surrendering the name of the cup and accepting the sponsor's demand of renaming it 'Kalyani Black Label Cup'.
By then the event had become so unwieldy with zonal competitions at different venues preceding the final phase - the semifinals and the final - at another venue. Wisdom took a back seat as greed for rewards stemming from commercialisation blinded the administration. The net result was that a popular fixture nose-dived to become just a mention in history, until the new millennium brought sanity.
The Chennai edition thus marked the revival of the premier competition but it is a moot point if the tournament had a popular reception in the metropolis, which once is said to have had a strong base for the game. It is a fact that Chennai was chosen the venue by default because the initial choice, Pondicherry, did not come up to the expectations, particularly with regard to floodlighting facility. The Pondicherry Government also was not very keen to host the event. Priyaranjan Dasmunshi, the AIFF President, said that Chennai had a tradition, a wonderful stadium and the experience of hosting major football fixtures including the 1995 SAF Games.
However, the Nehru Stadium was a shocking spectacle of neglect, the turf in particular. The AIFF had a rethink and was even set to push the event to Kolkata (the previous three editions had their final moments there). But the Tamil Nadu Government's assurance came forth at a timely moment and through its Sports Ministry, the Sports Authority got its act together to re-do the turf. Still, if expectations were for a carpet like green surface, then what eventually was provided was a far cry - a hard surface with grass disproportionately spread out.
None of the participating teams had a good word for the turf while experts felt that it hindered quality football since control was the first victim for a well-set team. As if these negative factors were not enough was the near disinterest of the fans despite the city once boasting of a legion of followers.
Not once was the stadium even quarter-full and this should be a matter of deep concern for the Tamil Nadu Football Association, which hoped to utilise this tournament to kick start a new interest for the game in the city in particular and in the State in general.
In the event there was a dip in standards, the reputation got a beating and there were generally low-key performances. But it must be said as a counter that there were some positive aspects too. There were spirited performances from Sporting Club de Goa and Dempo SC, while McDowell Mohun Bagan showed consistency in tune with its stature, the comeback win over Salgaocar and the emphatic verdicts over Air-India and Mahindra proving the point. But the performances from big names such as East Bengal, FC Kochin, Manaksia Tollygunge Agragami, Salgaocar and Zee Churchill were below par.
Teams such as Indian Bank and ICF (both local outfits) missed a wonderful chance to gain national attention while SBT, ITI, HAL, Air-India, Mohammedan Sporting, BSF, JCT and Punjab Police never got going. The knock-out format also did not make things any easier for the teams. East Bengal will vouch for that as a costly mistake by goalkeeper Sangram Mukherjee (considered one of the best in the country) proved fatal against Sporting Goa.
East Bengal was without Jo Paul Anchery, who preferred to rest his strained groin while its prize catch, I. M. Vijayan sustained a freak knee injury during practice and had to immediately leave the city, even before the team's outing, to undergo a quick arthroscopic surgery. May be the presence of these two players would have scripted a different story. But manager Swapan Pal had the last word when he said, "On this ground it was just as well they did not take part. Surely I am not interested in returning with injured players when the season has just begun in Kolkata."
Still there was enough to keep the interest going, thanks to the fairy tale progress of the two Goan clubs and the impressive march of Bagan apart from sporadic touches of class from players in various teams. The bag of tricks of SBT's Asif Saheer, Indian Bank's Sabir Pasha's dash commensurate with Hamilton Bobby's imaginative prompting, the sharp thinking runs and crosses of Agragami's Sasthi Duley, the speedy runs of Xavier Vijayakumar, Dayanand and Sunil of HAL, the opportunistic tries of Peter Rodrigues of Vasco and Climax Lawrence of Salgaocar and the delightful craft of Tomba Singh of Air India, to name a few.
The list could have included the Mahindra United team but some of its players were down with viral fever. Jules Alberto did not come to the stadium at all, spending most of his time in the hospital bed while Raman Vijayan was off and on from hospital. There were a few others, who recovered such as the coach Harish Rao himself. More than anything this emaciated the team. Nonetheless, the Mumbai squad, with the likes of Nigerians Habib Adekunle and Bernard Operanazie besides M. Suresh in defence, Khalid Jamil in midfield and Noushad Pari and Abhishek Yadav upfront showed the skill to reach the semi-final beating Zee Churchill, before bowing to Bagan. "In such a situation, losing to a team like Bagan was no embarrassment," Harish Rao said.
At least a Mahindra-Bagan semi-final clash could be considered on expected lines, forgetting for a moment the Mumbai team's travails, but what sent the draw topsy-turvy in the top half was the dream run of Sporting Goa and Dempo. It could have been any two among the leading NFL teams; instead the two teams which had at best been NFL second division participants, laid out a glorious path for a semi-final clash.
As Dempo coach Armando Colaco said, what interested him more than anything else was his team's performance which was like sending a message to the AIFF that the club was worthy of a place among the NFL premier league teams. It is his belief and the point was even more emphatically driven home when Dempo stormed into the final. Whether his logic will hold is anybody's guess but at least he has raised an important point. He said the NFL second division should be made a more elaborate competition, spread over a longer period, so that the better teams do not suffer because of one poor show, as Dempo had to in the previous season.
A dream run notwithstanding, it was a not a very impressive semi-final line-up, particularly with two Goan teams, Sporting and Dempo, facing each other. Mahindra and Mohun Bagan should have produced a cracker of a contest had the Mumbai team been in full strength. In the event, Barreto and James struck to stop Mahindra. But more than any other side, Sporting and Dempo deserved special mention for crossing one improbable hurdle after another. Dempo had taken in its stride BSF, FC Kochin and JCT. However, Sporting's conquests were more eventful. It was a crowning moment for Sporting when it defeated East Bengal but its defeat of Tollygunge Agragami was marred by some disagreement. Tamil Nadu's referee Pradeep Kumar was in the thick of a penalty situation, while assistant referee K. Sankar, also from Tamil Nadu, was involved in a close offside decision.
Both decisions were questioned by critics, even motives imputed but video replays convinced none other than M. Maniam, AFC's special representative, who had come to assess the referees before they were considered for FIFA panel, that there was nothing amiss. Still, in a country where officials sometimes forget their position before airing views and senior players can threaten the referee if booked (an experienced player of a Kolkata team dared one referee when he was booked that he would have a tough time if he came to Kolkata!), the men with the whistle or flag can only pray that wiser heads will judge them ultimately. It is particularly sad, as Maniam said succinctly, that the effort is to belittle somebody like Sankar who could well provide the proud moment of an Indian representation in the World Cup.
In fact one of the features of the final was not just Barreto's or Seriki's grand stand stuff but smooth officiating by the referee S. Suresh and the assistant referees Sankar and M. K. Roy of Assam. True, there were corrosive edges as the contest wore by but never did the situation go out of hand nor did the flow of the contest get affected. So pacy was the encounter and so relentless were Dempo's tries, almost matching Bagan's known enterprise. If only Levy Coelho had been sharper, Sukdev Arwade nippier or Stanley Colaco sure with the headers, it could have been Dempo's day. The team had a couple of tournament triumphs in Chennai in the years gone by. Essentially that was what made the Barreto-Seriki double trouble something special, in the final analysis.
In the aftermath now there is much for TFA to ponder. First, there should have been no compromise on publicity, an area worst dealt with. Also for the 'revival' theory to go to the logical end there should henceforth be no compunction on the conduct of tournaments, if possible fixtures hitherto stopped can be re-started and local leagues should be toned up. On the bright side was the service provided by the medical team of Dr. Kannan Pugazendhi and Dr. Sharath and the ready treatment given by K. J. Hospital when a few players were down with viral fever. Mahindra United was the worst affected. There were a few good and bad points, but overall it was a satisfactory organisational effort.
EVEN as the National selectors, waiting for a chance to pick new talent yearned for inspiration, here was a club which made everyone sit up, after every match it played in the Federation Cup tournament. Initially it was difficult to remember the name of the team for everything was new, including the players, most of whom were raw at this level.
And so when the players came out for their first outing in jerseys, which had numbers that were hardly visible, nobody was surprised. A case of inexperience, one thought. Nonetheless the media appealed to the Match Commissioner, T. R.Govindarajan to intervene and request the players change their dress.
Thus the team began its campaign on a false note. But soon when it beat local favourite Indian Bank and then nudged out the mighty East Bengal, Sporting Club de Goa had suddenly risen in stature. "It is a side with at least six under-21 players, and barring one or two none has the experience of playing on the big stage," said Angelo Albuquerque, the team manager. More than individual streaks the feature of the team was its collective approach.
The team has a Sudanese in Kamal Suleman and a Nigerian in Clifford Chukwana but unlike Mohun Bagan which is so dependent on the brilliance of its two foreign recruits this outfit blends with the raw rural talent. Peter Pereira, Eusebio D'Souza, Jerose Oliveira and of course Alex Colaco are sort of players who can contribute much to the Goan fortunes at the National level.
The team itself had made impressive strides in the three years in its new garb as Sporting club de Goa. Earlier it used to be called Cidade de Goa, which is also the name of a Five Star hotel in that State. As Albuquerque said, the club, in its earlier name had deep links with a Portuguese club with a similar name. "In fact the insignia of that Portugal club is what we also use," he said. Of late, with change of establishment there the earlier links had withered.
In its very first year in the Goan league, the team qualified for the coveted Professional League and finished fourth. "Last season we had made a bid in the NFL second division, a reason why we are in this tournament, but failed to make it to the final round on goal-difference despite remaining unbeaten in the five-team group league. "We had held Indian Bank goalless, drew 1-1 with Punjab Police and TFA and beat Manipur Sporting 4-0," Albuquerque said recalling the club's performance in Bhopal in the second phase of the NFL second division.
Despite the strides Sporting Club made under coach Peter Vales, reaching the semi-final before bowing to Dempo - they went out in a similar fashion earlier in the Goan league after being one up first - keen observers wondered if the small-framed players (nearly all of them looked puny) could fit in a National team.
Albuquerque said the boys were a hardened lot and tough despite the looks. "After all most of them come from rural areas for, in Goa, football is in villages and not in the city," he said.
All the same Sporting Club de Goa is well on course to add a new dimension to Goan football, if the enthusiasm seen in Chennai is any indication.
In all a measly 43 goals were scored in 19 matches in the fortnight long 24th edition of the Federation Cup. Even that figure was reached only because the list includes nine goals that had come from a penalty shoot-out, in the Salgaocar v Punjab Police match, the only fixture resolved via tie-breaker in the tournament.
The results: First round:Dempo 1 (Stanley Colaco, golden goal, 98') beat BSF 0.
Sporting Club de Goa 1 (Peter Pereira, golden goal, 92') beat Indian Bank 0.
Air India 1 (Samson Singh, 44') beat Mohammedan Sporting 0.
SBT 5 (Abdul Naushad 17', 25', 44', Asif Saheer 71', Sivakumar, self goal 36') beat ICF 1 (Kulothungan 7').
Pre-quarterfinals:JCT 1 (Harvinder Singh Jr., golden goal, 95') beat Vasco 0.
Dempo 1 (Sukdev Arwade, 79') beat FC Kochin 0.
Tollygunge 1 (Sandip Das, 62') beat HAL 0.Sporting Club de Goa 1 (Alex Colaso 52') beat Kingfisher East Bengal 0.
Mahindra United 1 (Surkumar Singh, 13') beat ITI 0.
Salgaocar 5 (J. Murali, K. Harish, Climax Lawrence, Dharamjit Singh, Remy Colaco) beat Punjab Police 4 (Balwinder Singh, Sher Singh, Gurpreet Singh and Gurinder Pal Singh) via tie-breaker, 0-0 at full-time & extra-time.
Zee Churchill 1 (Francis Coelho, 55') beat SBT 0.
Mohun Bagan 2 (Rennedy Singh 7', Ramires Barreto, 60') beat Air India 1 (Naushad Moosa, penalty 66').
Quarter-finals:Sporting Club de Goa 2 (Clifford Chukuwama, penalty, 28', Kamal Suliman, golden goal, 112') beat Tollygunge Agragami 1 (Sasthi Duley, 22').
Dempo 1 (Alesh Shamaki, 30') beat JCT 0.McDowell Mohun Bagan 3 (Barreto 30', Seriki 36',85') beat Salgaocar 1 (Climax Lawrence, 25'). Mahindra United 1 (Khalid Jamil, penalty, 16') beat Zee Churchill 0.
Semi-finals:Dempo 2 (Samir Naik 76', Levy Coelho 88') beat Sporting Club de Goa 1 (Francis Andrade, 23').
McDowell Mohun Bagan 2 (Barreto 40', James Singh 66') beat Mahindra United 0.
Final:McDowell Mohun Bagan 2 (Barreto 14', Seriki 79') beat Dempo 0.
Goal scorers:4 - Jose Barreto (Mohun Bagan).3 - Abdul Lateef Seriki (Mohun Bagan), Abdul Naushad (SBT).
2- Climax Lawrence (Salgaocar).1 - Stanley Colaco (Dempo), Peter Pereira (Sporting Goa), Samson Singh (Air India), Asif Saheer (SBT), Sivakumar (ICF-self goal), Sukdev Arwade (Dempo), Kulothungan (ICF) Sandip Das (Tollygunge), Alex Colaso (Sporting Goa), Surkumar Singh (Mahindra), Murali, V.K. Harish, Dharamjit Singh, Remy Colaco (all Salgaocar), Balwinder Singh, Sher Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Gurinder Singh (all Punjab Police), Francis Coelho (Zee Churchill), Rennedy Singh (Mohun Bagan), Naushad Moosa (Air India), Sasthi Duley (Tollygunge), Clifford Chukuwama, Kamal Suliman (both Sporting Goa), Alesh Shamaki (Dempo), Khalid Jamil (Mahindra), Harvinder Singh Jr. (JCT), Samir Naik, Levy Coelho (both Dempo), James Singh (Mohun Bagan) and Francis Andrade (Sporting Goa).
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