Football
Football is the main sport in this stadium.
The Salt Lake Stadium hosts the home games of local clubs Mohun Bagan A.C.,East Bengal F.C., Mohammedan SC and Prayag United S.C., four of the big clubs in Indian football. The traditional Kolkata derbies between Mohun Bagan AC and East Bengal take place in this stadium accompanied by much fanfare and feverish emotions (and on a few occasions, outbreaks of violence). Most of these matches are attended by capacity crowds of supporters of both teams.
Many of the home games of the India national football team are also played in Salt Lake, as are many important games in major stages of national tournaments.
On June 5, 2011 FIFA sanctioned a match to be played at Salt Lake on September 2, 2011. The match was played between Argentina and Venezuela. The match did end with Argentina winning the game 1–0 with Nicolás Otamendi scoring the only goal in the 67th minute from a Lionel Messi corner. Venezuela broke a few times into the Argentinean defense but could not make any real chance.
The stadium has also hosted Oliver Kahn's official farewell match for Bayern Munich when they played a friendly match against Mohun Bagan; Bayern won 3–0.
The most recent edition was a two-legged match, played a Supercopa de España in next year 2013.
On 8 December 2012, a friendly match was played between Brazil Masters vs IFA All Stars.Brazil Masters won it 3-1.Beto scored twice and Bebeto scored 1 goal for Brazil Masters.
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Famous quotes containing the word football:
“In this dream that dogs me I am part
Of a silent crowd walking under a wall,
Leaving a football match, perhaps, or a pit,
All moving the same way.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“You can’t be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline—it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a BEER.”
—Frank Zappa (1940–1993)
“...I’m not money hungry.... People who are rich want to be richer, but what’s the difference? You can’t take it with you. The toys get different, that’s all. The rich guys buy a football team, the poor guys buy a football. It’s all relative.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)