It will be a significant day for Feni Soccer Club who is appearing in a professional football tournament final for the first time in their brief history that also against a traditional name like Mohammedan SC. The two sides with completely different experience meet in the Modhumoti Bank Independence Cup final at the Bangabandhu National Stadium today. BTV will telecast the match live from 5pm.
Mohammedan has never lifted the trophy of the coveted tournament, though they successfully secured two Super Cup titles, in the last decade. It’s their reputation that makes them the favourite in today’s final, but the “nothing to lose” attitude from the Feni outfit is what makes them a dangerous challenger.
Feni’s highest achievement was reaching the semi-final of the Federation Cup in its debut season where they lost to the same opponents to bow out.
“Mohammedan are a better team, they are definitely favourites but they are the ones who should be under pressure. We will play without any pressure,” said Feni captain Akbar Hossain Ridon yesterday. “This is a historic event for us and we want to write history by clinching the title,” he added.
The pressure was also felt by Mohammedan captain Zahid Hasan Emily who was determined to take the trophy home. “I feel huge pressure. They (Feni) are not under any pressure. All the pressure is on us because when the team officials formed the team we gave them words that we would win every tournament. After the failure in the Federation Cup and in the league, now we want to win it. If we can play the way we started the tournament, I hope we will win the cup,” said the in-form national striker who scored four goals out of Mohammedan’s seven in the tournament.
In case of scoring most number of goals, Feni Soccer put the most, nine goals, in their opponents’ net in the tournament, more than they netted in the first leg of the Bangladesh Premier League. The sudden transformation in Feni squad was made possible by their head coach Omar K Sisse who roped in Gambian trio Mathew Mendy, Landing Darboe and Kabba Jobe to give the team a new dimension.
Mohammedan's Portuguese coach Rui Capella Batista was also very aware of Feni’s Gambian force and said, “They have three new forwards from Gambia. They have strong attacking line-ups. Feni are not the same team at the moment than they were before. They have improved a lot with new foreign players. They have a very good squad now and produced some good results in the tournament.”
The Portuguese coach also said he will not tinker with his usual 4-3-3 formation and their aim remains the same – a win.
Sisse also showed no signs of negligence to their opponent and said, “I have great respect for Mohammedan. But this is football so we are going there to work hard and fight; I don’t want to go down without fighting hard. We was so much united and we work hard to reach where we are now. We don’t want to stop here.
“We were never under pressure because pressure will not lead us anywhere. All we need is peace of mind in our heart, get us together and go and get what we are supposed to,” he added.
