More than four decades after India won the Asian Games gold in Jakarta, the nation will again turn its eyes to Geloran Senayan stadium hoping for another piece of history when East Bengal take on BEC Tero Sasana of Thailand in the final of the ASEAN Club football tournament on Saturday.
The Thai champions, who beat East Bengal 1-0 in the preliminary round, will start as favourites but the Indian side is on a dream run in this inaugural tournament and very capable of upsetting Sasana, which has also reached the final of the elite Asian Champions League tournament.
The ASEAN champions will take home the LG Cup and US $50,000 while the losers will get US $30,000.
The Red and Gold brigade will badly miss the services of Mahesh Gawli, who combined well with M Suresh and Deepak Mondal, in defence. The defender has to sit out of the final after picking a red card in the 8-7 sudden-death semi-final win over Indonesia's Petrokimia Putravia on Thursday.
Gawli rescued East Bengal from a certain goal in the semi-final, acting as the last line of defence with the 'keeper beaten.
Coach Subash Bhowmick is yet to decide whether to field Debjit Ghosh, who went down unconscious after a head on collision in the quarter-final against Persita Tangerang.
Similar is the case of Mike Okorro, who returned from injury to play in the semi-final, but was back on the injured list just before the end of the first-half.
However, Bhowmick can rely on his key players, Baichung Bhutia, Brazilian Douglas De Silva and Surkumar Singh to pierce the Thai defence.
With Bhutia and Douglas likely to be main focus of the rival defenders, Surkumar and Shylo Malsawmtluanga should look to slip in with their speed.
The team also has good bench strength with players like Bijen Singh and Alvito D'Cunha, who took turns to play in the earlier matches, available for a start call.
Skipper Suley Musah may fall back in defence now that Gawli is out of the final. Musah will have to take special care against the Thais, who made Asia sit up and take notice of them with their brilliant campaign in the Asian Champions League.
East Bengal got a taste of Therdsak Chaiman's skill when he scored the all-important goal when the two teams met earlier in the competition. Since then he has taken his tally to four goals, the last one coming in the semi-final win over Malaysian side Perak FC.
The left-sided midfielder is fast and reads the game well and can score with either foot. In the last Tiger Cup, which Thailand won, Chaiman was voted the most valuable player.
But on the goalscorers' chart Chaiman is a distant second to Bhutia, who leads with eight goals in four matches.
After scoring a blank in against BEC Tero in the first match, he made amends, scoring five against Army FC, Philippines and once in the quarter-final and semi-final.
Indeed, East Bengal's fortunes in the final will hinge on Bhutia. A couple of goals from him could prove decisive and see East Bengal write a new chapter in India's football history.
