CFL 2018 -- Mohun Bagan beat George Telegraph, go top of table

A FEW THINGS HAPPENED AT THE Calcutta Football League game between Mohun Bagan and George Telegraph on Sunday afternoon.

A record number of people who had used their holiday to travel a long distance to see their favourite team continue their 30th CFL title bid had to return disappointed, because the high demand for tickets meant that the game was sold out a good couple of hours before the match.

Another not-so-cool record was set outside the arena: tickets were sold at 15 to 20 times their actual worth by touts all over the Maidan to hapless fans who had no option but to pay the black market premium to gain entry into the Mohun Bagan Ground.

Now, the third and more important record was that for the first time in the nearly one and a half century history of the Calcutta Football League, a woman served as a match commissioner in a top flight game. Sudeshna Mukhopadhyay carried out her job flawlessly in a pressure game, where the fourth official also happened to be a woman.

Now to the on-field action. George Telegraph had come in with a simple plan: crowd the defence, take advantage of the narrowness of the Mohun Bagan Ground's pitch to limit wing-play, frustrate the Mariners and see out the clock. A full-on attack from George Telegraph was rare; they were mostly relying on counter opportunities. As a result, less than twenty minutes into the game, Mohun Bagan defenders were pushing up, starting attacks and even moving up in higher numbers, leading to a traffic of legs in the final third that further caused trouble for the Mohun Bagan attack that had yet to gain fluency three games into the season, and a lot of confusion on anticipating passes with so many defenders in the mix.

As time wore on, frustration grew amidst Bagan players and fans. At half-time, the score was goalless, and the possibility that after East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting even Mohun Bagan would drop points this week seemed palpable.

But the second half saw Shankarlal Chakraborty make a couple of crucial changes in the team's attacking policy. They no longer committed extra bodies forward, instead focusing their efforts on passing the ball more in the midfield, inviting the opponents to engage and thereby free up the final third. Then, if an opportunity presented itself, specific people would push forward, more often than not chasing a long ball or a cross. It wasn't the most exciting game of football, but it saw MB get chances more frequently, and in the end got them a crucial goal from Dipanda Dicka that finally got them the lead.

The George Telegraph players, having gone down, soon assumed a different mode of play. Now they were focusing more on counters, in order to get back even. In the final 15 minutes they created numerous opportunities, drawing some great saves from Shankar, who was under the bar for Mohun Bagan replacing Shilton Paul.

You can watch the entire game right here...

In the end, a 1-0 win was enough for the Mariners to get out of a tricky situation and claim the top spot in the league table with 9 points from 3 games. Peerless, with 6 points from 3 matches, are in the second place, just above Mohammedan Sporting. East Bengal, with 4 points from 2 matches, have seemingly fallen behind in the title race at least for now, having succumbed to a draw days earlier.