Shyamal: - The Lajong team has not practiced penalty shootouts. I am not saying that Abhra Mondal is not a good goal keeper, but the penalty shots of the Lajong players has no power and had no tricky directions. It looked as if they are teaching Abhra, how to save goals coming in straight direction to him. Maybe, Abhra applies one tactic to break the concentration of any striker. Before standing for a penalty shootout, Abhra just jumps in his spot for 2-3 times by stretching his two hands in two directions and he looks at the striker’s eye movement and the feet angle. That is the reason why, Barreto stopped for few fraction of a second, before he made the shot in the Semi Final against East Bengal.
Palash: - Luck just favored East Bengal in this Federation Cup. In the Semi Final match, when Barreto missed the penalty, somehow, it acted as a demotivating factor for Mohun Bagan and they were unable to score a goal in the first half. They also lost momentum in the 2nd half. But, today, if East Bengal is the Champion, then indirectly the credit goes to Lajong FC team only. If they would not have played the role of ‘Giant Killers’ in this tournament, then Churchill Brothers would have thrashed East Bengal in this Final match. The way East Bengal has played in the final match was much below the standard of Kolkata football.
Rahul: - This time it is bad luck for Mohun Bagan, who has lifted this cup for 13 times. It happens. Even big International footballers also missed penalty shots. That happens, boss. Now, Mohun Bagan should forget that defeat in the hands of East Bengal and should give their 110% effort to win the Kolkata as well as National League. If East Bengal has won Federation cup, then Mohun Bagan should win the IFA Shield.
Arindam: - Mohun Bagan is the oldest and No.1 club of West Bengal. Their players will surely come back again to win many tournaments. Forget East Bengal and Mohun Bagan or even Churchill Brothers. They are winning big matches by recruiting football players and coach from foreign lands. But, look at the new Red Brigade of North-Eastern India. Maybe, one or two players are from Nepal or Bhutan side, but all the other players are from our India only. Look at their coach? Mr. Rozario is an Indian only. East Bengal rejected him, but he showed his caliber. He proved that our real Indian players can also play football. East Bengal and Mohun Bagan dances or gets excited with only one Bhaichung Bhutia, but if you give proper training to the players of Lajong team, you can have at least 7-8 players like Bhaichung Bhutia in your team.
Jiten: - This Lajong team looks like the South Korean team. They are all of short stature, wearing red jersey and above all, their style of playing is similar. They prefer to play in small passes rather than long passes. But, as their height is short, they cannot convert corners very easily. It is really great to see a team full of Indian players only, is playing so beautifully in the tournaments. All the players are very young and fresh. As they are from hilly areas, they have much more stamina than other plain land footballers. Really, the red brigade of CPI (M) is vanishing from India, but I think that this Shillong red brigade will really motivate everyone to improve our Indian football.
Arindam: - One thing I have observed in this Lajong FC team is that their playing strategy movement is like amoeba. Their defense forms a semi-circle and then it tapers towards the mid-field and then when the ball reaches the forward area, all the wings formation take place automatically. It proves that Mr. Rozario is very intelligent. In the initial 10 minutes of play, his team plays in 4-2-4 combination to get a goal. After getting a goal, they show an illusion to the other team that they are playing in 5-3-2 formation, but basically their players are moving in a 3-2-3-2 formation, which is an unique move like the ‘diamond system’ move of Amol Dutta. Now this illusion pressurizes the other team coach to adopt an attacking strategy, and this Lajong team just capitalizes on it by counterattacking in a very fishy style. AIFF should make a rule to restrict only 2 foreign players in any Indian club team. This “FEDERATION CUP OF 2009” should become the beginning of the rise of Indian football. No foreign cricketers play in Ranji Trophy, then why only Indians will not play in Indian football.
