A restless night awaits the fans on the eve of an unpredictable Kolkata Derby

WHAT'S BETTER: 6 points from home games or 4 points on the road?

What's more reassuring: a seasoned attack of immense combining calibre or a couple of creative marauders who can take advantage of set-pieces with spine-chilling accuracy?

Who's more trustworthy: a club legend with decaces-old relationship with its traditions and legacy or an unflinching professional with a razor-sharp irreverent attitude and a proven track record?

What's more feasible: a train to Sealdah and a bus from there or a rented truck decorated in club colours to take all the friends and the friends' friends all the way to Salt Lake?

And what tastes better: a slice of hilsa cooked feathery-soft with steam and laced in mustard or a piece of prawn mingled thoroughly with onion, cardamom, chilly and fine basmati rice?

All these are questions that have dominated the tea stalls, the railway coaches, the office canteens and the leisurely open fields of Kolkata for the past one week with increasing intensity. And tomorrow, they will reach a fever pitch as East Bengal and Mohun Bagan take each other on in a battle of grit and glory to carry forward a contest that has been going on for almost a century.

The first Kolkata Derby of I-League 2015-16. Everyone, including us at TFG, has been talking about it for quite some time now. Cornell Glen signed for Bagan and the first thought in peoples' minds was, will Bello Razaq be enough to keep him away? Bikash Jairu found his touch playing for India in the SAFF Championship and the whispers were, will he be a wild card in the Derby?

Everything East Bengal and Mohun Bagan have done over the past few months has been a build-up for this. Bagan's title-defence, East Bengal's title challenge, the commitment in Asia... everything sidelined for one rivalry that towers above all else in the fans' minds. And no matter how much the players, coaches and officials try to play this down as "just another game, we're thinking about league/AFC/biriyani" etc they know what this means. 

That's why East Bengal officials worked frantically round the clock, unsuccessfully trying to get Bernard Mendy to show up before Saturday's match. That's why, at a time when a sponsor is as elusive as a mirage in a desert, Tutu Bose offered Rs 1 crore to clear a portion of the overdue payments so that the players are less stressed out. 

But now it's Friday evening. All preparations are done. Teams have formulated strategies. Fans have come up with travel plans. Tickets are nearly over; most people thinking they'd buy one on matchday will go back empty-handed. And yet, no one can say for sure who has the upper hand in this match.

On paper, some are putting Mohun Bagan ahead. They have a great attack; Glen and Balwant/Jeje up front, Sony Norde and Katsumi Yusa to back them up. The defence has dependable faces like Luciano Sabrosa, Pritam Kotal, Dhanachandra Singh and Raju Gaikwad. In the goal there is Debjit Majumder. 

But does that defence have an answer for Ranti Martins and Do Dong-hyun? How will they take on a scoring-range free kick where Dong-hyun takes the shot and Ranti Martins is loose in the penalty box? Can they shut down the supply line coming from Mehtab Hossain and Sehnaj Singh? Can their attack get past the barrier set up by Bello Razaq, Arnab Mondal, Gurwinder Singh in defence and Rehenesh TP at goal? 

Comparing the teams on paper is never enough. Just like looking at head-to-head records from the near past isn't enough. 

In the previous Derby, East Bengal defeated Mohun Bagan by a massive 4-0 margin. But that was in Calcutta Football League, those were different squads. In the I-League, Mohun Bagan have not been beaten by East Bengal since November 2013. But that doesn't mean anything either. Because this is a new season, a new team. And more than anything else, this is a new game. History goes for a toss in high-pressure matches like this.

Back in 1999/2000, Mohun Bagan were unstoppable in the National Football League. They secured the league title with a couple of games to spare. Then they took on East Bengal, and a team that struggled and finished 7th in the table beat the champions to salvage pride. Then the Calcutta Football League 2013-14. East Bengal had easily secured the title. Then Mohun Bagan bested them in the Derby, taking the fun out of it. This has happened time and again between these teams. The tag of "favourites" is of no use in the Derby. 

And that's why, for the thousands of fans who are, at this moment, busy ironing a lucky shirt, drying the old banner, haggling to bring down day's rent for a medium-sized truck or eating at that one restaurant twenty kilometers from home that always gives a positive result the next day, this is going to be a restless night. Because no matter who is playing or sitting out, who is in form and who isn't, there's no way to predict what will happen when those 22 boys walk out in front of that raging sea of a Derby crowd under the setting sun on a winter afternoon that inexplicably leaves a lot of people sweating.

Victory and defeat in the Derby are defined by moments. Moments that capture the momemntum of the game, and go on to become immortalised in history. Which is why, numerous pairs of sleepless eyes will count down every moment throughout the night , until it's time to board the buses and trucks and race towards that fabled arena where dreams are made and broken.