2003–04 East Bengal FC season

East Bengal

2003–04 season
Chairman	Dr Pranab Dasgupta
Manager	Subhash Bhowmick
Ground	Salt Lake Stadium
National Football League	Champions[1]
Calcutta Premier Division	Champions[2]
Federation Cup	Quarter-finals[3]
Super Cup	Runners-up[4]
ASEAN Cup	Champions
Durand Cup	Runners-up[5]
IFA Shield	Runners-up[6]
← 2002–03 2004–05 →

The 2003–04 season was East Bengal Football Club's 8th season in the National Football League, and also marked the club's 84th season. East Bengal successfully defended their league title from the previous season, competing in the 2003-04 NFL. They have also won the 2003 Calcutta Football League and the 2003 ASEAN Club Championship. They became runners-up in the 2003 Super Cup, 2003 Durand Cup and 2003 IFA Shield.

First-team squad

East Bengal FC squad for the 2003–04 season.^[7]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  IND Sangram Mukherjee 2 DF  IND M Suresh 3 DF  IND Deepak Mondal 4 DF  IND Mahesh Gawli 5 MF  IND Malsawmtluanga 6 MF  IND Kulothungan 8 MF  IND Sasthi Duley 9 MF  IND Alvito D'Cunha 10 FW  NGA Mike Okoro 11 FW  IND Bijen Singh 12 FW  IND Bhaichung Bhutia 13 GK  IND Sandip Nandy 14 MF  IND Chandan Das 15 MF  BRA Douglas Silva

No. Pos. Nation Player 16 DF  IND Debjit Ghosh 17 DF  IND Surkumar Singh (c) 18 MF  IND Subhash Chakraborty 19 FW  IND Raman Vijayan 22 DF  NGA Suley Musah 26 FW  BRA Cristiano Júnior — GK  IND Arpan Dey — GK  IND Jitu Chhetri — DF  IND Surya Bikash Chakraborty — DF  IND Subhashish Roy Choudhury — DF  IND Anit Ghosh — MF  IND Dipankar Roy — MF  IND Sujoy Dutta — MF  IND Arunava Sarkar — MF  IND Tushar Rakshit

• Coach: Subhash Bhowmick^[7]
• Physical trainer: Kevin Jackson
• Team doctor: Dr. S R Dasgupta
• Team manager: Swapan Ball

Stadiums

Kingfisher East Bengal F.C. have been using both the Salt Lake Stadium and the East Bengal Ground sense Salt Lake Stadium opened in 1984. As of today the Salt Lake Stadium is used for East Bengal's I-League, AFC Cup, and Federation Cup games. The East Bengal Ground is used for the Calcutta Football League matches.

Competitions

Overall

Competition	First match	Last match	Final Position
Calcutta Football League	20 June 2003	2 November 2003	Champions
ASEAN Cup	14 July 2003	26 July 2003	Champions
Federation Cup	31 July 2003	4 August 2003	Quarter Finals
IFA Shield	20 September 2003	28 September 2003	Runners-up
Durand Cup	4 November 2003	10 November 2003	Runners-up
Super Cup	14 November 2003		Runners-up
National Football League	30 November 2003	12 May 2004	Champions

Matches

  Win   Draw   Loss

Calcutta Football League

ASEAN Club Championship

The ASEAN Club Championship is a friendly international football competition between domestic champion clubs sides run by the ASEAN Football Federation.^[8] Formerly known as the LG Cup, sponsored by LG Electronics. LG described the competition as a "social marketing experiment". Qualification to the competition was for champions clubs from AFF-affiliated countries only, plus the champions from India in 2003.^[9][10] After winning the 2002–03 National Football League, East Bengal was invited to the inaugural 2003 ASEAN Club Championship held at Jakarta, Indonesia.^[11] Top clubs from South-East Asia participated in the tournament which included the favourites BEC Tero Sasana from Thailand who already reached the 2002–03 AFC Champions League Finals. The star-studded team consisted of Golden Ball winner of 2002–03 AFC Champions League: Therdsak Chaiman. Other top teams like 2002 Malaysia Super League Champions Perak FC and Liga Indonesia 2002 Champions Petrokimia Putra participated in the tournament.^[12]

East Bengal was grouped alongside BEC Tero Sasana and Philippine Army in Group D. They lost the first match against the favourites BEC Tero Sasana 1–0, courtesy of a solitary goal from Therdsak Chaiman. The Red and Gold brigade bounced back in style as they defeated the Philippine Army 6–0, with Bhaichung Bhutia scoring all 6 goals, becoming the only Indian player to score a double hattrick in an International game to date.^[13] In the Quarter Finals, East Bengal faced Persita Tangerang of Indonesia. Goals from Bhaichung and Bijen Singh ensured a 2–1 win for the Kolkata side. Bhaichung was again on the scoresheet when East Bengal faced Petrokimia Putra in the Semi-Final. The score was 1–1 after 120 minutes and the Red and Golds won 7–6 in the shootout. On 26 July 2003, East Bengal made history as they defeated the favourites BEC Tero Sasana 3–1 with goals from Mike Okoro, Bhaichung and Alvito D'Cunha, hence becoming the first Indian club to win a top-level officially recognised tournament in foreign soil.^[14] Bhaichung became the top scorer of the tournament with nine goals. Sandip Nandy was adjudged as the Best Goalkeeper of the Tournament.^[11]

Group stage

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
BEC Tero Sasana	2	2	0	0	4	0	+4	6
East Bengal	2	1	0	1	6	1	+5	3
Philippine Army	2	0	0	2	0	9	−9	0

Bracket

	Quarter-Finals				Semi-Finals				Final
	20 July 2003
	Petrokimia Putra (a.e.t.)	3
					24 July 2003
	Singapore AF	2
					Petrokimia Putra	1 (6)
	21 July 2003
					East Bengal	1 (7)
	Persita Tangerang	1
									26 July 2003
	East Bengal	2
									East Bengal	3
	20 July 2003
									BEC Tero Sasana	1
	Perak	2
					24 July 2003
	Samart United	0
					Perak	1
	21 July 2003
					BEC Tero Sasana	3			Third place
	BEC Tero Sasana	2
									26 July 2003
	Hoàng Anh Gia Lai	1
									Petrokimia Putra	3
									Perak	0

Matches

  Win  Draw  Loss

Federation Cup

IFA Shield

Durand Cup

Super Cup

National Football League

Statistics

Top Scorers

Goal Scorers for East Bengal FC in 2003–04 season
Rank	No.	Pos.	Nat.	Name	CFL	ASEAN	Fed Cup	IFA Shield	Durand Cup	Super Cup	NFL	Total
1	12	FW		Bhaichung Bhutia	9	9	0	0	2	0	12	32
2	10	FW		Mike Okoro	10	1	0	0	3	0	3	17
3	26	FW		Cristiano Júnior	—	—	—	—	—	—	15	15
4	22	DF		Suley Musah	9	0	0	0	0	1	0	10
5	6	MF		Dipankar Roy	0	0	1	5	0	0	2	8
6	11	FW		Bijen Singh	2	1	2	3	0	0	0	6
7	9	MF		Alvito D'Cunha	3	1	0	0	0	0	1	5
	15	MF		Douglas De Silva	1	0	0	2	0	0	2	5
	5	MF		Shylo Malsawmtluanga	2	0	0	1	2	0	0	5
				Own Goals	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Sponsors

• Main Sponsor: Kingfisher (Parent Company United Breweries Group is 50% stake holder in the club).

References