Slap : A different one which produced another dimension Bhaskar Ganguly to Indian football

Pics - :: Bhaskar Ganguly acrobats to save a shot at the goal only with one hand
Slap : A different one which produced another dimension Bhaskar Ganguly to Indian football

This article  and this story is all about an incident that happened during a football match on September 25^th 1975 when East Bengal on that day defeated Mohun Bagan by 5-0 in a football match That match is known as the GOD of Indian football demolishing the DEMONS like Maa Kali demolished all the demons before being unrealistic she put her feet on her husband finally stopping slaying all the Demons that existed there in this world then

Story : Mohun Bagan were highly overconfident 
Before meting East Bengal , in the finals  of the Durand Cup Mohun Bagan beat JCT by 3-2 in the finals of the Durand Cup to annex a Trophy That saved their face . That victory over East Bengal whom they were beating in any of the match bewtween them for the first time after that 3-1 beating that they gave it to East Bengal in the Ananda Bazar Patrika Football tourney was their first over East Bengal  in The Durand and their second over East Bengal after their 1971 Rovers wins , both outside Kolkatta At Kolkatta Mohun Bagan till then were only losing to East Bengal .That win infused some confidence in the Mohun Bagan’s campbefore East Bengal demolished them

This match was the second one in 1975 between the two teams In the fag end of 1974 Mohun Bagan through agoal by Doraiswamy Ulganathan had defeated East Bengal by 1-0 in the semis of the Durand Cup .That year courtesy a hattrick by UlganatGoalkeeper & its problem : Bagan puts it’s onus on Bhaskar Ganguly

Mohun Bagan sincerely made an attempt to find out what was it’s problem with the team and why it was serially and continuously losing to East Bengal It found out that it’s goalkeeping arena was too weak Hence it looked for a goalkeeper who would be yound, energetic, flexible, would have all the kind of elasticity, reflexes and would not be under any pressure against it’s main rival and at that point of time they saw Bhaskar Ganguly a teenaged guy about 17 years of age playing excessively positive and bright football at Kolkatta The next was Bhaskar was added to the list of Bagan for the match

Bhaskar Ganguly : Promising goalkeeper but without any experience

Pic- : The " GRIPPING " of Bhaskar Ganguly 

Though Mohun Bagan reposed it’s faith on Bhaskar Ganguly and he practiced with the team rigourously for the big match it was evident that against a team like East Bengal then which had Tarun Bose at the goal, Sudhir Karmakar, Ashoke Lal Banerjee, Shyamal Ghosh at the defense, Gautam Sarkar and samaresh Choudhury at the mid-field and the exploding forwards like Subash Bhowmik, Subhankar Sanyal, Surojit Sengupta and Shyam Thapa at the forward line, it was expected that against these and this line Bhaskar will wilt under pressure What was more was that he being very inexperienced and very raw he would fall into the flax and the buddle-gloom of the East Bengali’s as he lacked in big match experience and the nitty-gritty that was required for him to handle the situation He was playing his FIRST match of his career in Kolkatta’s football and that too against a team like East Bengal That was the GREATEST mistake Mohun Bagan were doing to play him

East Bengal 3-0 up in 1^st half and 4-0 up immediately after the breather, Bhaskar “ slapped “

Well the game and the match started and by the end of the first half East Bengal were up 3-0 . It was Subash Bhowmik who opened the account for East Bengal scoring from a very near hand shaking distance. Within another 20 minutes East Bengal were up courtesy two goals by Shyam Thapa

Silver Lining: Bhaskar Ganguly saves a penalty of Shyam Thapa

Shyam Thapa had scored two within no time In the history of East Bengal and Mohun bagan’s match there were two Mohun Bagani’s who had scored a hattrick against East Bengal.They were Amiya Deb who on 5^th September 1934 in the Dharbhanga Cup had scored a hattrick for Mohun Bagan and again there was Asit Ganguly who on 6^th August 1937 had scored a hattrick for Mohun Bgan in their Raja Memorial Football cup match against east Bengal

Pics- : Bhaskar Ganguly and Samaresh Chowdhury after a practice session 

That was in the mind of many a statisticiuans and when Shyam Thapa scored that second successive goal for East Bengal all the East bengali’s in order to see Shyam Thapa scoring a hattrick against them and becoming the FIRST one to score a hattrick against Mohun Bagan started feeding him will all the balls in the penalty area of Bagan After some time East Bengal got a penalty and it was Shyam Thapa who went ahead to take it but MISS THAT Bhaskar Gangulky brought about an acrobatic world class save to dent Shyam Thapa of a hattrick on that day

In the second half Surojit Sengupta and Subhankar Sanyal scored a goal each to seal the fate of Mohun Bagan and to script a HISTORY in the word wriiten by GOLD for East Bengal A 5-0 score board really put the Bagani’s to seal their front door of their club tent for the remainder of the season and East Bengal scripted a fairy tale with a RECORD to add many more GOLDS and DIAMONDS to it’s illustrated  and illustrious history of the club

THE HIGH POINT ANY OF MOHUN BAGAN IF IT WAS IT WAS THE PENALTY THAT BHASKAR SAVED

Bhaskar Ganguly slapped: He had to leave the game : 4^th goal redefined his career

That very day the East Bengali’s were two kind of a game From their goal area to the 20 yards line of the Mohun Bagan’s goal they were literally walking and strolling as if they were on an outing free for walk on a park But no sooner that they would enter the Bagani area at a distance of 20 yards, they would move like a projectile that came out of the forward push bombardment of the rocket or maybe the missile which is fired to hit the target The precision with which the East bengali’s would do that was really out of imagination and out of the box So much was the ascendency that every East Bengal player on that day when he scored would score from a distance where they could stretch their hands to Bhaskar Ganguly to shake hands with him With that kind of a wide angle that they created to score very goal NO GOAL KEEPER WOULD HAVE STOPPED ANY BALL GOING IN TO THE GOAL.Bhaskar was no exception

The alacrity by which the Bagan’s defense was torn to pieces and put to the shred was and is indescribable. In this situation the Bagani’s would hope Bhaskar to come out with the BEST but he could’nt When the ball was kicked 12 steps from te area which was a penalty Bhaskar stopped that But how can you expect a goalkeeper to save when someone gets a chance to score from a hand shaking distance

Every time their main strength in the defense line Subroto Bhattacharjee was toyed with and the way the East bengali’s beat him be it Bhowmik, be it Shyam Thapa be it Surojit or be it Subhankar Sanyal it was a class of JOKE for him to digest The SLANGS that he was hearing from the Bagani’s supporters and the kind of TAUNT’S that was thrown at him by the East Bengali supporter it was too much for him to swallow

Finally when Surojit Sengupta cut from ther flank , started running parallel to the Bagan goalline, cutting by dribbling one after the other Bagani’s defender outwitting Subroto by a CLASS of a body feint , dribbling him twice within a span of one action once by the instep and immediately by the outstep and when he directed himself to Bhaskar to reavch that handshaking distance to push it for the 4^th goal Subroto by then had LOST his sense, sence and his COOL He straight away gave a HRAD slap to the 17 years of age the Mohun Bagani goalkeeper Bhaskar Ganguly

Bhaskar was immediately replaced and Biswajit das was brought in However he too had to gulp one couryesy Shubhankar Sanyal and that was 5-0 for EAST BENGAL September 25^th 1975 was the date

Bhaskar Lost: Samaresh Choudhury brings him back

Pic-: Bhaskar Ganguly and Samaresh Chowdhury after a practise session 

That slap to Bhaskar by Subroto was the last that he might have had any player to play a body contact game as football is the body contact game Thereafter Bhaskar Ganguly was LOST Digesting that kind of a goal in a match was no big a deal as East Bengal in 1928 also had beaten Mohun Bagan by 8-1 in a nine-a-side football match which was played in a field which was 70 yards in length and 50 in breadth But that was the epic age of Indian football this was the transition age of Indian football and that was the difference

Thereater in football especially at that time one who had gulped that many a goal in a football match it was taken for granted that his career was over After that match every East Bengali player that day was talking about so many a things after the match that they had to do with but there was

  ONE WHO SPOKE ONLY OF THAT SAVE OFF A PENALTY OF SHYAM THAPA AND THE WAY HE SAVED THAT He was Samareshda alias Pintuda ( Samaresh Choudhury ) According to Pintuda the ONE-POINT-HIGHLIGHT-OF-THAT-MATCH-WAS-THE-SAVE-BY-BHASKER-FOR-THAT-PENALTY-SHOT

Bhaskar was completely a man who had to take everything, the SLANGS, the TAUNTS, the CURSE of every Mohun Bagani whenever he went out of his house However being so small in age he did not loose heart From where did he gain that strength or the might that only GOD would know to answer those but he came out of his house Such was his state of matter that even the mohalla team ie the lanes which he stayed , those would not give him a chance tp practice He practiced only after the game got over He would request some of his friend to take the shots at the goal and he would save it 

Slowly he started practicing three times a day He gave up his studies to perfect and horne his skill

Pittiance came to him when in a tournament held at the Dumdum area he received the best player and the best goalkeeper award None other than Samaresh Choudhury was the man who presented him that award being a Chief Guest for that match for that evening.

Pic - : Surojit Sengupta ( Right ) and Bhaskar Ganguly in a pre-match strategy session 

The season 0f 1976 went passed by and Bhaskar was a forgotten man in the annals of Kolkatta and it’s football history He was 18 yaerts of age by then However came 1977 and when east Bengal after suspending tarun Bose, Ashoke lal Banerjee, Sudhir Karmakar and Gautam Sarkar needed a name in the goal it was Samaresh who propsed his name There were many LAUGHS and TAUNTS that Samaresh had to take for that But when Samaresh cired many examples and many a tale of Bhaskar that he was doing it for the lane of his club at Dumdum and when Samaresh said that if Bhaskar fails he would return all his money that the club would pay him for his service did the East Bengal authorities pick him for thew 1977 season as a first choice goalkkeper.

When he was picked   there were many a mouth and many a threat that the club official treceived from the fanatics East Bengali supporters Some went to the extent of saying that if Bhaskar repeats the same which he jad done on September 25^th 1975 for Mohun Bagan they would pull the entire East Bengal club officials and the others in the court and may even kill Bhaskar and the club officials including Samaresh Choudhury for what they were doing

1977 : Second Big Match & Bhaskar Was The “ KING "

It was 1977 Shyamal Ghosh was the Captain of East Bengal East Bengal were playing Mohun Bagan in their derby It was the 3^rd minute when a WORLD CLASS forward defence piercing pass was set by Gautam Sarkar for Habib Habis was at a hand shaking distance All he needed was to push that ball as the wide angle was enough for him to score that one Like an arrow came out Bhaskar and sommersaulting in the air by airborning his full body and flexing his hands on the ball he picked up the ball from the feet of Mohammed habib one fo the footballer who is feathered with the title of being the FIRST in the annals of Indian football history to have scored 10 goals against Mohun Bagan in the clashes of the East-Mohun derby
That save was ENOUGH for this 19 years of age and a lad who was stepping into the highest echelon of Indian football to demonstrate that his was going to make it big Three minutes later again a world class defense splitting pass from Gautam Sarkar completely beat the entire East Bengal defense and the ball came to Mohammed Habib All he needed to do was to push the ball as he was stranded with a very wide angle to score Like an arrow came out Bhaskar from his block, threw his body on the air at the place very near to Habib’s feet and while his body was arched in the air with his legs directed at the sky and his head to the boot of Habib he simple and simply picked the ball from Habib’s feet

The ROAR of the CROWD and the supporters of East Bengal, the flowers thrown at him at the stadium at Eden Gardens where the match was played and the applause of his team mate all within the first five minutes of the game completely changed the entire complexion of East Bengal who through TWO world class goal, one of a flying header by Mihir Bose and the other through a WORLD CLASS swerving free kick from 40 yards by Samaresh Choudhury saw East Bengal beating Mohun Bagan by 2-0 to win the IFA Football league in 1977
East Bengal played 23 games it won 22 outright and the one against Mohammedan Sporting ended with East Bengal getting a walkover
1980:: Bhaskar Ganguly and Manoranjan Bhattacharjee declared BEST of Asia
It was 1980 The Pre-Olympic soccer was held at Singapore There were some BERST of the ASIAN Footballer invited for the tourney Iran which had Mehmood Khabazi and Ahmed Sanzari who played here at India for Mohammedan Sporting and for East Bengal ( Khabazi played for East Bengal in 1981) and who were LAUGHED and TAUNTED here for their game were assisting the Iranian team which won the tourney there at Singapore
The jury of some great journalist covering the game assisted by some of the GREATEST footballer of Asia who were invited there to witness the game including the GREATEST of Asia, Jan Kammammotto selected Bhaskar Ganguly as the BEST Goalkeeper of Asia for that tourney for their performance along with Manoranjan Bhattacharjee as the BEST defender of Asia in that tourney

That SLAP- a HARD one by Subroto Bhattacharjee to Bhaskar made this young coot then to move all alone SINGLE HANDEDLY without any support to give away his studies and to transform himself into a footballer of the WORLD CLASS QUALITY at the expense of his studies What studies could NOT give him East Bengal  and FOOTBALL gave him In a country like India if you are NOT loaded with a proper education you would have to BEG and that is for sure But this coot had a CONFIDENCE where he could defy all the odds and the belief to get what he wanted to get out of football in his life
Regards

Pic- : Shyamal Bhattacharjee