Kolkata: If stutter and stumble had defined their season so far, Mohun Bagan Super Giant replaced that with a show so full of swagger that it robbed this contest in the Indian Super League (ISL) of the kind of heft expected from clubs steeped in history and heritage. If there was uncertainty in who would play provider, Greg Stewart has solved that problem with two assists and one goal in the 3-0 win on Saturday. Mohammedan Sporting may have been guilty of playing the occasion. Bagan, on the other hand, rose to the occasion.
Stewart had taken the league by storm when he joined Jamshedpur FC in 2021. He had won the Scottish Premiership with Celtic the season prior and it showed as he ended the ISL as player of the competition. It was the same when the Scottish playmaker switched to Mumbai City FC. He returned to ISL after a half-season with Kilmarnock and on Saturday evening relived his Jamshedpur FC and Mumbai City FC years.
Stewart, 34, ruled the midfield making full use of the space Sporting provided. He scored Bagan’s third goal in the 36th minute running at Sporting’s defence, turning and burying a shot into the bottom corner. Gliding past challenges, finding Jamie Maclaren like they have been playing together for ever and being accurate with set-pieces, Stewart ensured that Bagan would never lose their grip on this Kolkata derby in the way they have been guilty of in the Durand Cup final and against Mumbai City in the ISL opener.
It was Stewart’s flicked header, off Liston Colaco’s corner-kick, that Maclaren, A-League’s all-time highest goal-scorer, headed home. Maclaren had missed the pre-season with injury but didn’t take longer than eight minutes to get his first goal of the competition. Stewart was provider again for Subhasish Bose with a free-kick that landed on the Bagan captain’s head for the third goal.
Bose had won the free-kick after Joseph Adjei barrelled into him and as the Sporting centre-back looked on from the sidelines, Stewart took the free-kick which Bose converted. By the 36th minute when Stewart scored, Sporting would have been wishing they were anywhere but at Salt Lake stadium in front of 40,000 people who had braved the rain and heavy pre-Puja traffic.
Maclaren’s sharp turn and shot and Lalengmawia Ralte’s punt from range that Padam Chhetri palmed away was proof that Bagan meant business from the off. Colaco then tested Chhetri with a long-ranger and there was an occasion when he, Stewart and Maclaren had formed a neat triangle but the move was wasted because no one followed up. In one build-up Ashish Rai and Manvir Singh threaded the ball between the legs of Sporting players, twice Stewart went past three players and Manvir could have got two assists and a goal in the second half. This, when Bagan had taken their foot off the gas.
“This was like high school students showing those in the kindergarten how to play,” Sporting coach Andrey Chernyshov said in the pitch side interview. Bagan, he had said before the match, will come with double power after their 0-3 loss to Bengaluru FC. They did and Sporting were not prepared for it.
“I would be asked about the defence being a problem but I said that we can take care of the problem by attacking better,” said Jose Molina, the Bagan coach. “I am happy with the performance but we could have scored six, seven goal and about that I am not happy.”
With Thomas Aldred and Alberto Rodriguez slotting in as centre-backs, Ralte in front of the back four and Thapa given the licence to move up, Bagan look to have got the balance right. The international break is not what they would want but India coach Manolo Marquez would be happy to see the kind of shift Thapa and Ralte put in. Ditto Bose and Singh.
Like with East Bengal, Sporting will look forward to the break. Chernyshov spoke of the lack of physicality and that is one of the things he will need to work on before they take on Kerala Blasters on October 20.
