AFC Cup Quarter-final First Leg: East Bengal 1-0 Semen Padang – Five Talking Points

Chid & Moga must build an understanding quickly

Edeh Chidi and James Moga played like strangers in the first leg(Photo Credit: Kingfisher East Bengal)

The biggest upgrade in this East Bengal squad from last season was the addition of one of I-League’s hottest strikers in James Moga. The South Sudan international striker was expected to share the goal scoring responsibility with Edeh Chidi, who was often overburdened last term. But, on the evidence of the first leg against Semen Padang, the two are yet to form any sort of understanding and more worryingly, look far from match fit. Both Chidi and Moga notoriously arrived late for pre-season citing the reason of not getting their visa on time. Even if the reason is true, that didn’t help East Bengal’s cause because they needed their two foreign forwards to be at their best from day one and especially in the AFC Cup tie.

Perhaps Falopa should have insisted on playing a direct style which would have allowed Chidi and Moga to impose their physicality on the Semen Padang defence. But without an understanding, even regular high balls wouldn’t have been enough for Chidi and Moga to combine successfully. So, the challenge for the two and Falopa will be now to work on combination play. Of course, only training sessions until next week’s second leg won’t bring an immediate change in the interplay of the two strikers but they surely can’t play any worse than the first leg. Even if there is an ego clash between the two, for the team’s sake at least, Falopa has to ensure that the star strikers play for each other and build up an understanding as soon as possible.