East Bengal Warm Indian Hearts

East Bengal became the first Indian club to win an international tournament on foreign soil when they beat favourites BEC Tero Sasana of Thailand 3-1 to lift the LG Cup ASEAN club football championship in a thrilling final in Jakarta.

The hard earned victory against the Asian Champions'League finalists made East Bengal richer by $50,000. It was a sweet revengefor the Indians who had lost 0-1 to the Thais in the league phase.

Leading by a 28th minute Mike Okoro goal at the break,East Bengal stretched their lead to 2-0 with golden boot award winner BaichungBhutia taking his tournament tally to nine in the 48th minute.

Alvito D'Cunha sealed the issue in the 69th minuteafter the Thais tried to come back through a goal by Panai Kongpaphan in the58th minute.

Bhutia, who was declared the man-of-the-match,continued with his rich form and ended the tournament on a high with his solosecond goal which put the Thais firmly on the back foot even as they were tryinghard to nullify Okoro's strike.

On a quick counter attack, Bhutia snatched the ballfrom Thai defender Thanongsak Pajakkta after a one-to-one battle. He went insidethe box, pulled the goalkeeper out of position, and regaining his step after aslip, found the net with a firm right foot shot.

The Geloran Senayan Stadium once again turned out to be a lucky venue for Indiansoccer, where India had won the Jakarta Asian Games gold medal in 1962.

The two teams began with a couple of raids on eitherend with Therdsak Chaiman, the most valuable player of the tournament, and Okorocaught in the offside trap in the early minutes of the match.

Even as Sasana looked like taking control with greaterpossession with more of action in East Bengal's half, the Kolkatans came backwith some intellingent bout of passing which unsettled the Thais.

Soon East Bengal went into the lead through a snap goalwhich totally caught the Thais off guard in the 28th minute.

Lurking near the rival danger area, Okoro latched on toa guided through pass from the centre circle by Brazilian Douglas De Silva.Wriggling for space between the rival defenders, Okoro, starting only his secondmatch of the tournament, found the target with a powerful right footer thatcrashed into the net.

Returning from an injury and repaying coach SubashBhowmich's faith in him, Okoro then ran to the sidelines and did a Bebeto stylecraddling. Soon the other players including Douglas, Bhutia, Alvito D'Cunha,skipper Suley Musah and Sashti Duley joined him in the celebration.

With their tails up, East Bengal mounted furtherpressure but efforts by Surkumar Singh, Alvito and Duley did not bear fruit.

At the other end, Sasana were desperate to equalise before halftime and NigerianAdu Sunday Omojola threatened twice but was crowded out by the alert East Bengaldefenders.

In the first half injury time, Anuchai Katpongsrireally threatened with a quick move, which the Indian team averted by concedinga corner kick.

Rattled, the Thais began the second session determinedto make amends and immediately went in search of the equaliser. But Bhutia, whohad other ideas, spoiled all their plans putting East Bengal 2-0 ahead threeminutes into the half.

Five minutes later, the Kolkatan outfit got a fineopportunity to increase the lead when Douglas put Bijen Singh through, but theManipur lad's effort went just wide.

The Thais were now fighting with their backs to thewall and replaced Omojola with Wuttiya Yongant. The move paid off quickly as thesubstitute combined with Kongpaphan to pull his team back into the match with 32minutes of play left.

The two played a brilliant one-two before Kongpaphanscored beating East Bengal custodian Sandip Nandy in the 58th minute.

The Thais, who upset Asia's star clubs enroute to theAFC Champions' League final, were now really on the boil and tried to even thecontest.

Chaiman came close in the very next minute but aftersurviving the onslaught for the next ten minutes Alvito left his indelible stampon the final scoring with a thundering right footer from just outside the box.

Receiving the ball on his left leg, following a quicksally by Surkumar through the right, he quickly changed the ball to hisfavourite foot and blasted home giving no chance to 'keeper Phansa Meesattham.

PTI