The Hindu : Sport / Football : Mumbai FC continues its winning streak

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Mumbai FC continues its winning streak

Principal Correspondent

KOLKATA: Mumbai FC continued its remarkable run beating East Bengal by a solitary goal in its second outing in the I-League football at the Salt Lake Stadium here on Tuesday. The Mumbai side, which is barely into the second season since its inception, produced the second upset after defeating Mohun Bagan three days ago.

Ghana’s Felix Aboagye struck in the 23rd minute to give the lead for Mumbai FC. The second round win helped Mumbai FC continue its stay at the top of the 12-team order.

East Bengal remained with the three points it collected beating Chirag United in the opener.

Tactical acumen

Mumbai FC’s reign definitely underlined the tactical acumen of its English coach David Booth, who had helped the team qualify to the elite stage of the competition. The visitor showed it had done its homework well while preparing for the tournament.

This was amply proved when Felix Aboagye converted a regular freekick into the goal.

The Ghanaian recruit chested down a lowly set Riston Rodrigues freekick, made a sharp turn inside to clear his marker East Bengal defender Khelemba Singh and lobbed the ball into the net over an onrushing Subrata Paul, the East Bengal custodian.

East Bengal expected that its cast of national team players would show the required precision. But that did not happen as Sunil Chhetri found his header off a curling Renedy Singh corner cleared from the goal-line by Mumbai FC midfielder Subhas Chakraborty.

Wayward

Mehrajuddin Wadoo was even more wayward sending his shot wildly over a gaping goal after Brazilian striker Edmilson Marques fetched the ball back into visitor’s box retrieving Chakraborty’s clearance.

East Bengal had two more chances to equalise after the goal. East Bengal coach Stanley Rozario tried to bring some life into the attack replacing Edmilson with Ashim Biswas in the second session.

The change hardly seemed to help the host as misses continued unabated.

The Mumbai FC goalkeeper Kalyan Choubey put up a good performance saving three close attempts by Chhetri and Renedy Singh.

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