The ISL hasn't yet seen a boro match quite like this. Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal is always the biggest game in Indian football, but very specifically on the pitch, it hasn't felt quite like that in recent times. You see, every time the teams have met in this young league, East Bengal have been wiped clean: six games played, six games won by Mohun Bagan. In the larger scheme of things (395 matches played, 141 won by EB, 128 by MB), this is a drop... but the significance of that drop is that it's very much in the now.
This is where, enter far left, Carles Cuadrat. And enter it with some swagger. Last week he led East Bengal to their first trophy of national significance in 12 years. He's got East Bengal fans swearing by his name: one in conversation with this writer referred to him exclusively as 'Sir Cuadrat', another -- with a dash of the dramatic -- as God. He's got the red-and-gold half of Kolkata believing again... and he knows it.
"For the first time after more than three years, there's hope... there's a sensation that we are equal," said Cuadrat. "After a long time in the ISL, [both fans and players] know we can be competitive, and that's important."
Addressing a packed press conference (the room itself seemingly split down the middle, just like the city), Cuadrat was cautious too: "we are in 8th position, eight points off Bagan", and "we have had four goalscorers in the ISL [scoring 11 G], they have had 11 [scoring 19]", but the overwhelming emotion was aggressive positivity.
And for good reason, of the three derbies that have been played out this season (two in the Durand Cup and one in the Super Cup), Cuadrat has won two. "We are a big club, with a lot of history" he said. And he loves that his fans have the finally rediscovered their taste for silverware. "Now [the fans] are proud," he says. "They can talk face-to-face with [Bagan's]."
Surely that adds pressure going into the big one on Saturday? "I love it," was the response.
His captain, Cleiton Silva -- scorer of the winning goal in the Super Cup final -- agreed. "I love playing in these kinds of matches. When you have 30,000 people cheering for you at just the warm-up, what extra motivation do you need" he said, before planting a seed of mischief. "There's also some turbulence at Mohun Bagan, eh?" he said with a broad smile. "With the new coach..."
That new coach, though, is an old hand. Nobody has managed more than the 97 ISL matches that Antonio Lopez Habas has. He's won the ISL with ATK and ATK Mohun Bagan. Now he wants to do it with a grand old club that's unencumbered by the divisive weight of the 'ATK' tag.
Final touches before the Kolkata Derby! ��✅#MBSG #JoyMohunBagan #আমরাসবুজমেরুন pic.twitter.com/q3mU6g68ji
- Mohun Bagan Super Giant (@mohunbagansg) February 2, 2024
Habas has taken over a team that's endured a proper rollercoaster of a half-season. Juan Ferrando led them to a Durand Cup triumph (the one derby Cuadrat has lost in three), an embarrassing group stage exit in the AFC Cup, a seven-match unbeaten run in the ISL and was then sacked on the back of three straight losses. Habas, parachuted into a team that's not his, with a squad that doesn't really have the kind of players he prefers to pack his teams with, is up against it here.
Not that his expression gave anything away at the press conference.
Speaking in his heavily accented English, Habas was less expansive than Cuadrat and his messaging far calmer. "I understand it's the derby," he said, implying that he understand exactly what that term entailed, "but I am not nervous. After all, I have to make sure my players are not nervous. It's just one football match, after all."
"There are no favourites in a derby," he says, adding that to the list of things that keep him calm. "No before, no after. Just the match."
But there's also a quiet confidence in the technical superiority of his players. When Bagan lost their last derby in the Super Cup (under the interim managership of assistant Clifford Miranda), he points out that seven of their team had been called up for the national team, and a couple of regulars were out injured. "But this is the past," he said. "We are not here to give excuses... we are here to win trophies. This is the start of a new era."
To herald it, he can welcome back Sahal Abdul Samad and Anwar Ali ("both 100% available") and the entire contingent of the Indians who travelled to Qatar. This, on paper, makes it very much a vastly superior squad to the one available for Cuadrat.
So of course, the question of pressure was asked repeatedly, the questions about Bagan losing twice already this season... at which time he delivered a one liner that showed just why he's this league's most successful ever coach: "I don't know what it feels like to lose against East Bengal, because I have never lost a match against them."
"Every boro match has something that makes it special," Cuadrat had said earlier. For this one, the 396th edition, it's that for the first time in a long time there's a very real chance that Antonio Habas and Mohun Bagan might not win. And that makes for a tantalizing prospect.