Dissecting Bagan’s plight against Odafa

“He (Odafa) is a fantastic player,probably the best foreigner to play in India after Majid Baskar. If he can maintain this consistency for two more years,he will edge past Majid. Still I think it’s the Bagan players’ performance,or rather the lack of it,that made things a lot easier for Odafa. It wouldn’t have been a stroll in the park for him against the likes of Sudhir Karmakar or Subrata Bhattacharya,or Manoranjan Bhattachrya,or GS Parmar,” Banerjee,a former India captain told this daily.

“I was saddened to see the Bagan players laughing even after such a rout. They don’t have the pride to perform,” he added.

According to him,the Kolkata giants are in for a tougher time in the I-League. “It’s time to change the approach and look beyond the old guards. Jose Barreto is a great player but he is not getting any younger. It’s time to move over Barreto. The Durand final showed that Barreto can no longer be a matchwinner at the top level. Bagan need Odafa-class upfront and a quality centreback if they want to be competitive in the

I-League,” Banerjee opined.
Bhattacharya,on the other hand,said that the green-and-maroons were done in by the failure to spot Odafa’s predictability. “For all his goal-scoring ability,Odafa is predictable in his manoeuvres. He has a confirmed dribble and if one can close in on him fast and doesn’t allow him the space to do the outside and inside dodges after collecting the ball,he won’t be the same player. We did it in the match between Chirag United and Churchill in last year’s I-League,and he looked ordinary. Against a Sudhir Karmakar,Odafa would have been at his wits’ end as the former wouldn’t have allowed him the space and would have come hard at him at the first opportunity,” said Bhattacharya,the Chirag United coach,who badly wanted Bagan to win the Durand Cup final.

Asked why the Bagan players and their coach failed to spot Odafa’s weakness,he explained: “Yes,it’s a collective failure of the coach and the players. Maybe the coach couldn’t explain this to his boys,or maybe the players are not competent enough to pick up his tips.”