Near repeat of Foe tragedy mars LG Cup

Near repeat of Foe tragedy mars LG Cup

Arya Abhiseka, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

East Bengal and BEC Tero Sasana reached the semifinals at the LG
Cup ASEAN Club Championship after winning their crucial matches
on Monday, but it was overshadowed by fears of another episode
reminiscent of the Marc Vivien-Foe tragedy.

Around 8,000 spectators inside the Bung Karno stadium had a
real scare when East Bengal's Debjit Ghosh was knocked out cold
after he went up for header and was blindsided by a vicious
flying elbow courtesy of Persita Tangerang's Zaenal Arief in the
35th minute.

Medical personnel were very slow to react and players from
both teams appeared to be panicking and trying to resuscitate
Ghosh until the tournament doctor finally arrived nearly five
minutes into the ordeal and they put him on a stretcher and
carted him away in an ambulance.

Persita's Zaenal was not given a yellow or red card by the
referee.

The sight of Ghosh lying motionless was eerily reminiscent of
the tragedy that marred June's Confederation Cup when Cameroonian
Marc Vivien-Foe collapsed without any contact during the match
between Cameroon and Colombia in the semifinals. Foe was later
pronounced dead and it found he had a rare and dangerous heart
condition.

Ghosh was taken to the Mintohardjo NAVY Hospital with a severe
concussion, he was eventually upgraded to fair condition and
released from the hospital at 9 p.m. on Monday night.

East Bengal, however, persevered and 'won one for the Gipper'
as they dispatched Persita to march to the semifinals with a 2-1
win, while BEC Tero Sasana was through at the expense of HAGL of
Vietnam, with the same score.

Terdsak Chaiman and Jatupong Tangsukh were the scorers for the
Thais, while Le Quoc Vuong scored for HAGL.

East Bengal of India has been competing as an invitee in the
tournament which is contesting champions in respective national
leagues in the Southeast Asian region.

In the Bengal-Persita game, leading scorer Baichung Bhutia
opened the scoring for the Indians after he headed home a cross
to take his tally to six goals in the tournament.

Persita equalized through Ilham Jayakusuma, who executed a
penalty shot after Bengal's goalkeeper Janid Nandy was
controversially charged with having tripped Mahruzar Nasution
inside the box.

Bengal's winner came in the 75th minute when a cross from the
right flank connected with Mutum Bijen Singh at the other end and
he headed into the net to make it 2-1.

The loss means that Persita has crashed out leaving only
Petrokimia Putra, which triumphed along with Perak FC of Malaysia
in the other quarterfinal matches held in Gresik, East Java, on
Sunday.

After the game, East Bengal coach, Subhash Bhowmick was
absolutely livid over not only the controversial penalty against
his team but also the way the organizers failed to respond to
Ghosh's fate in a timely fashion. He blasted the organizers and
said they were lacking in professionalism and hurting the
development of Asian soccer.

"If we want to see Asian football (soccer) progress and
develop, we cannot let these things happen," he said in disgust.

Meanwhile, Iswadi Idris from the organizing committee, told
The Jakarta Post that his medical team had properly installed
medical equipment around the stadium, but refused to say why help
was so late in arriving.

East Bengal will play Petrokimia Putra, while Perak FC will
take on BEC Tero Sasana of Thailand in the semifinal games to be
staged at the Bung Karno stadium on Thursday.