HT Kick Off: Finally, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal look even

Jamie Maclaren doing Jamie Maclaren things; Sunil Chhetri showing his left foot and an eye for goal are still sharp so what if he will turn 42 this year; Prasanth Karuthadathkuni’s lobbing Hrithik Tiwari and Mohammedan Sporting’s all-Indian squad losing only 0-1 to Jamshedpur FC were the highlights of the first weekend of the Indian Super League (ISL).

The upset happened on Monday; East Bengal zooming past NorthEast United. East Bengal have never finished higher than ninth –twice they were 11th – while NorthEast United made the play-offs last term. The visitors had also won the Durand Cup twice in succession and had beaten East Bengal en route this term.

East Bengal’s win coming 48 hours after defending champions Mohun Bagan Super Giant began with full points told its own story. We’ll get there in a bit because East Bengal’s performance needs to be talked about first.

If the peripatetic Ezzejjari – he has not stayed beyond a season at any club since starting out with Granollers in 2012 –has hit the ground running, it is because days before arriving in Kolkata he had scored for Tanjing Pagar United in the Singapore Premier League. Match sharpness will be the final piece of the puzzle, Jamshedpur FC coach Owen Coyle had told HT before the 12th edition, delayed by five months for most of which there was no football, began. Maclaren, a journalist pointed out to the Mohun Bagan striker, was playing after 105 days. Ezzejjari’s arrival with football in his legs is a huge advantage.

The departures of Dimitrios Diamantakos and Cleiton Silva – both after a falling out with Bruzon – before Hamid Ahadad and Hiroshi Ibusuki left meant East Bengal had a problem in front. “For some time we didn’t have a classical No.9,” said Bruzon after East Bengal began with a win for the first time in six ISL seasons.

The arrivals of Ezzejjari and Anton Sjoberg, also after a good season in the USA, should be what East Bengal need. And it will cost them significantly less than what it did to get Ahdad and Hiroshi Ibusuki.

“The performance of the guys looks promising,” said Bruzon. You couldn’t say that about Mohun Bagan and head coach Sergio Lobera, who prefers winning 6-2 than 1-0, said they had got too defensive after Maclaren had scored with his first shot on target. “The best way to defend a goal is to score one more,” said Lobera.

Mohun Bagan can be dangerous playing his brand of possession football, “because it is very difficult to stop these amazing players,” said Lobera. Which is why he was not happy at Mohun Bagan “going back, back, back” and inviting pressure.

“This is one of the big changes East Bengal have had this year,” said Bruzon. PV Vishnu and Edmund Lalrindika made a difference from the bench, each getting an assist, and the Bipin Singh-Jay Gupta partnership could worry a lot of teams. Anwar Ali is in the form of his life though options in central defence look thin.

Getting Liston Colaco to switch to the right so that Robson can be accommodated is a crease Mohun Bagan need to iron out. Having been Mohun Bagan’s go-to player for goals in his first two seasons, Dimitrios Petratos will also need to adjust to No.10. The absence of a foreign holding midfielder could also mean the ball will travel quicker to Vishal Kaith in goal.

But when teams have not filled up the foreigners’ quota and have barely had a pre-season, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal have trained for months. Lobera’s point about his club having the tools to carry on is applicable to East Bengal as well. Bruzon saying their first target is to finish above ninth notwithstanding this season is the first where East Bengal can look at Mohun Bagan in the eye. Just how ISL wanted when they got them to join in 2019-20.