The upset that upset all upsets -- bottom table Aizawl beat league leaders Mohun Bagan 2-1
BOTTOM TABLE Aizawl FC stunned the unbeaten league leaders Mohun Bagan 2-1 at home in a game that upset the status quo of I-League in the deepest way possible.
Although, on paper, it was a match between the unbeaten league leaders and the newly promoted bottom-table relegation contenders, in actuality it was anything but that. Mohun Bagan were without Sony Norde, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Pritam Kotal and Pronay Halder who are away on national duty, while their head coach Sanjoy Sen is obviously away from the touchline serving suspension. The only good news for the Mariners was keeper Debjit Majumder risking ire from AIFF by staying back to play this game instead of joining the national team camp today.
Coach-in-charge Sankarlal Chakraborty started Manish Bhargav (U-22) in the wing in the absence of Norde and fielded Subhash Singh along with Cornell Glen up front. The Aizawl FC head coach Jahar Das also had a surprise. Four-time Mizoram Premier League best goalkeeper Lalawmpuia finally got his I-League debut today.
After spending the first few weeks of the season playing well but losing out on points due to poor conversion rate, Aizawl have been on a recovery path lately; and they showed that again pretty early on when Joel Sunday took everyone by surprise with a superb shot that beat Debjit and went straight into the goal before things had settled in. Aizawl FC were 1-0 ahead 3 minutes in, and that set the tone for the rest of the game.
Aizawl kept attacking, not letting Bagan get a hold of the contest. A couple of free kicks went the Mariners' way, but didn't produce much. The home team made an early change due to Imanuel Lalthazuala getting injured; Laltha Kima took his place.
Cornell Glen got the ball early on, inside the box, from dead scoring range. But he shot it wide. But he made up for it with his alertness a little later when Aizawl keeper Lalawmpuia fumbled trying to get hold of a rather harmless ball. Cornell Glen was close at hand and he ran up to the ball, shooting straight into an empty net. 1-1.
This was followed by a few minutes of dominance from the away side as a reinvigorated Mariners pushed hard from the midfield nd created a few chances. The best of them came when Cornell Glen was fouled just outside the penalty box and Katsumi took the free-kick... but he missed the target by inches. It was 1-1 at half-time, with Aizawl FC having seen the overwhelming majority of the ball.
Early on in the second half Sankarlal replaced an unimpressive Manish Bhargav with Kean Lewis. But before he had settled in things went haywire for Bagan. An incoming shot saw defender Dhanachandra Singh's hand get in its way and the referee awarded a penalty to Aizawl. Defender Lalchawnkima Lalchawnkima stepped up to take the spot kick, and sent Debjit diving the wrong way. The stadium erupted; and those watching from outside the ground - from the hills surrounding the arena - also joined in. It was 2-1 to Aizawl.
They almost scored again a couple of minutes later. Brandon set up Albert for a shot but Debjit made an excellent diving save to deny Aizawl a 2 goal lead. He did the same when home team captain David Lalrinmuana sent in a deadly header.
The league leaders, hitherto unbeaten, smelled danger as the game went past 80 minutes. Katsumi Yusa in particular got especially aggressive. He fouled Lalrinmuana and moments later when Dhanachandra messed up a free kick he kicked the ball angrily, prompting the ref to bring out the yellow card.
But all that came to nothing. When the long whistle sounded the scoreboard still read 2-1. The unthinkable had happened; Mohun Bagan had suffered their first I-League defeat since they played Royal Wahingdoh away last season.
And it was the upset that upset all upsets in the league; both at the bottom of the table as well as the top. With this win, Aizawl FC suddenly jumped up to 12 points from 12 matches - same number of points as Salgaocar, Mumbai FC and DSK Shivajians - sending Shillong Lajong to the bottom table with 11 points from 11 games. The two North-Eastern sides will face each other in the very next game; and it will be a contest that will have an enormous bearing on the relegation battle. And now that the bottom 5 clubs in the league are separated by just 1 point and Sporting Clube de Goa not too far ahead on just 14 points, it has created yet-another cluster-jam in the relegation race.
As for Mohun Bagan, this is not the end of the world, but their lead at the top is no longer comfortable. They sit on 25 points from 12 games, and Bengaluru FC are on 22 with a game in hand. But more significantly, this loss of theirs has given an opening to East Bengal - whom they face in the Kolkata Derby next Saturday - to get back in the title race by winning that game.
So this match may be where the I-League plot takes on a major twist. Because it has created a situation in the league where all the clubs are fighting for something. The top 3 are in the title race, and the bottom six are fighting to avoid the dreaded last-boy seat and relegation (well, except Shivajians).
