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the indian football magazineFIRST ANNIVERSARY ISSUE || OCTOBER 2012
Clicked Barefoot
U-16 AFC CupBordoloi Cup
Federation Cup 2012
SUBROTO CUPThe Indian Football Nursery
Special Feature
CONTENTSDear Reader,
In our anniversary issue, the
63rd edition of the Subroto Cup takes
centre stage. India’s premier school
tournament forms the cover story of
the April issue. We look back at the
history of the Subroto Cup, which
has been a nursery for young foot-
ballers in our country over the years
and analyse the latest edition. There
are detailed match reports of all the
three major finals and an exclusive
interview with the Head Coach of
the victorious Dynamo Kyiv side.
We also report the events and
outcomes of the semi finals and fi-
nal of the Federation Cup, all of
which saw Siliguri and Jamshedpur
turn into the hub for domestic foot-
ball over the duration of the tourna-
ment. There are interviews of East
Bengal coach- Trevor Morgan and
the Churchill Brothers captain- Beto
and in course of talks, they reveal
retrospective thoughts on the tour-
nament and the upcoming I League.
The latest loss to Singa-
pore in an international friend-
ly has also been covered.
We profile young Ajit Singh
from Meerut in the Young Player
section of the issue. The I League
section returns, holding out a fea-
ture on the upcoming season.
There are features on the Under
16 AFC Cup, held in Tehran, Iran and
also on the St. Michaels Rink Tour-
nament in Mumbai. Regular features
like Clicked Barefoot and the Indian
Football Quiz return with a new zing.
Wishing you a good read!
Aniket Mishra Editor
Editor Aniket Mishra
Creative Head Neelesh Vineet Saran
Syed Hamza
Marketing Head Shubham Garg
Editorial Team Isha Panwar K.S. Yashaswini
Editor of Photogra-phy & Design Syed Hamza
Marketing Modhulika Bose
Contributors Sajin Padiyath Bharathan Chandrase Isha Panwar K.S. Yashaswini Md. Asim Shaan Novy Kapadia Shounak Purkayastha Souvik Naha Wasi Manazir
TO ADVERTISE CONTACT:E 25 B, Vijay Nagar, Delhi 110
007. [email protected] [email protected]
+91 99118 85829
foot notes
MATCH REPORT: East Bengal are Federation Cup champions p20
Trevor Morgan Interview p22
Semi Final Match Reports p24
Exclusive Chat with Churchill Captain-Beto p26
SPECIAL FEATURE: THE Federation Cup
CONTENTS
FEATURE:I-League preview p18
THE VERY TOUGHIndian Football QUIZ p40
AIFF signs professional contract with FIFA referees p28
TOURNAMENT FEATURE:61ST BORDOLOI CUP, GUWAHATI p38
FEATURE:Under-16 AFC Championship, Tehran. p42
COVER STORY: SUBROTO CUP 2012
MATCH REPORT: THE BOYS FINALS p33
THE INDIAN FOOTBALL NURSERY p31
TEAM FROM IMPHAL WINS GIRLS TOURNAMENTp34
EXCLUSIVE:OLEKSANDR ISCHENKO p37
Exclusive:
St. Michaels Rink Foot-ball Tournament p45
YOUNG PLAYER FEATURE (INTERVIEW): Ajit Singh p14
India Go Down to Singapore p16
CLICKED BAREFOOT p4
by Syed Hamzaclicked barefoot
4
The boys from Kyiv prove to be too good
6
The team from imphal
emerge victorious.
Some glitter and glamour before the
grand finale.
8
1010
Trying to get the conditions
in orderThe show must go on.
12
How do you manage your responsibilities as col-lege president, studies and football all at once?It gets pretty hectic but
i try and maintain a balance between all of them. I get up early and practice football for 2-3 hours, then i go to college and attend classes and then I play again in the evenings.
young player feature: interview
Against All OddsAjit Singh belongs to a small village called Ramala near Meerut. He has
been a part of the Junior Nationals team from Haryana and also played in Subroto Cup for Haryana. Coming from a place where football is very low on
the popularity list, this young lad is extremely talented and owes this talent only to God and his own efforts. In a chat with Barefoot’s Syed Hamza, he
talks passionately about football and his future plans.
Do you idolise someone?I really like Messi’s
game. His short passing game impresses me a lot. The players in India are not that tall so short passing game is what really would suit us. Among the Indian players, I idolise Sunil Chhetri.
What has been the high-light of your career so far? What do you plan to do now?I won the D-League B
division this past season with Goodwill FC, Delhi. It was a great experience. Now, I play for Jaipur FC and also have given trials for IT department and FCI, both Kolkata be-cause i think that is where the best football in India is played.
“I really like Messi’s game. Among
the Indian players, I idolise Sunil Chhetri.
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What do you think about the facilities for football in India?
The facilities are very poor. The place where I come from, there is nothing even re-motely close to a ground. And you can’t play without a ground, can you? And unless there are grounds at the grassroot level, football just cannot grow. If you look at European countries, cities have around 15 proper grounds or even more. Even the places where there are grounds, equipment, proper di-ets, etc are missing. It gets very difficult for players to stick to football in such circumstances.
Coming from a small town, your family must have supported you a lot that you got here!
Not really. My family is against all this. They want me to focus on my studies and stop “wasting my time”. But I still do this because i love to play football. Their being un-supportive meant that I never got any coaching but I put in effort and got this far. Some-times I can’t go to outstation tournaments because my fam-ily doesn’t let me but I try and manage as much as i can.
“The place where I come
from, there is nothing even
remotely close to a ground.
So, where do you see your-self ten years from now?(Laughs) Like every
other player, my dream is to play for India and I would like to take it one step at a time- maybe cracking in to the Del-hi Santosh Trophy team first and then an I League side would be a dream come true.
On a different note, I would also like to open my own football academy and initiate a program like ‘Indian Idol’ for foot-ball wherein I get talented kids from the grassroots and train them with proper infrastructure. So, right now I plan to work to get that done as soon as I can.
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India went down 0-2 to Singapore in an Interna-tional Friendly at the Chao Chu Kang Stadium in Singa-pore on Tuesday (October 16). Khairul Amri and Fazrul Nawaz scored one each for the home side in the 43rd and 49th minute respectively.
Despite conceding the odd goal in the first half, India stayed the better of the two teams in the first 45 minutes. They began with a purpose and pressed hard. The ball was switched from one flank
to the other, the game slowed down when the situation need-ed and the ball played among themselves all throughout.
In the 9th minute, Mehtab Hossain broke into the Sin-gapore box but rival defender Harris Harun recovered in time to scuttle Mehtab’s cross from inside the box. The very next minute, Clifford Miranda latched on a defensive lapse but Harun managed to flick his centre at the last minute to prevent Sunil Chhetri from pulling the trigger.
There’s something
about the Choa Chu Kang Stadium. On the far side, you don’t have galleries; instead USD 2 million Villas stay wit-ness. In the stands, however, the support stayed equal even as around 3000 fans turned up.
Much against the run of play, Singapore surged into the lead in the 43rd minute when Khairul Amri intercepted a clearance down the right, entered the box and placed it past an advancing Subrata Pal.
Almost immediately, In-dia had another chance but San-
featureIndia Go Down to Singapore
16
The starting XI prior
to the kick off.
ju Pradhan’s cross agonisingly missed Sunil Chhetri’s forehead.
Changing over, Singa-pore didn’t allow India to settle down and doubled the score in the 49th minute – Fazrul Nawaz putting it past a diving Pal.
To make matters worse, Captain Sunil Chhetri suffered a slight niggle and was even-tually replaced by Robin Singh in the 62nd minute; Jewel Raja also came in for Sanju Pradhan. Three minutes later, Gurwinder Singh came in for Raju Gaikwad. Robin tried to make an impact soon but his left-footed volley from the top box went straight to the rival
goalkeeper Izwan Mahbud. With six substitutions al-
lowed, Koevermans brought in Anthony Pereira in the 77th min-ute in place of Clifford Miranda and three minutes later, there was another double substitution -- Joaquim Abranches replac-ing Mehtab Hossain and Denzil Franco coming in place of Syed Rahim Nabi in the 80th minute. The move earned more thrust and a Francis Fernandes corner was gathered well by Mahbud and another went abegging.
But it was an uphill task and despite India going all out, the Singapore defence managed to keep everything
at bay till the final whistle.INDIA: Subrata Pal;
Nirmal Chhetri, Gouramangi Singh, Raju Gaikwad (Gur-winder Singh – 65th), Syed Rahim Nabi (Denzil Franco – 80th); Sanju Pradhan (Jewel Raja – 62nd), Mehtab Hos-sain, Lenny Rodrigues, Clifford Miranda (Anthony Pereira – 77th); Francis Fernandes; Sunil Chhetri (Sunil Chhetri – 62nd).
-Courtesy The AIFF Media Team
The Indian team in action during the recent Nehru Cup
I-League kicks off
feature: I-League Preview
-By Sajin Padiyath
The new I-League season 2012-13 kicked off this month with neither much fanfare nor excitement - and perhaps in a more worrying manner - with-out a title sponsor for the sec-ond successive season. This however did not deter the I-League clubs in splashing out more money than ever to lure in some of the best talents to their respective clubs. The likes of Prayag United and Salgao-car have bought in seemingly a full squad of new players while the likes of Mohun Bagan and East Bengal have not been far behind in adding star names in their effort to wrest away the title from last season’s champi-ons Dempo SC.Kolkata club Prayag United seem determined to buy their way to success after having splashed out the cash and brought in Ranti Martins, Sub-rata Pal, Gourmangi Singh and Costa Rican Carlos Hernan-dez among others to Kolkata. If early season symptoms are anything to go by Prayag will be one of the leading contend-ers to lay their hands on the tro-phy this season. Mohun Bagan have not been far behind hav-ing added Tolgay Ozbey and
Nirmal Chhetri and others to their arsenal while Indian cap-tain Sunil Chhetri has moved to Portugal. However, they have not had the best of starts hav-ing already lost two games as well as their newly appointed coach Santosh Kashyap, who resigned after the poor start to the season.East Bengal will certainly be looking to better their second place finish last season with Chidi Edeh their most signifi-cant addition. AIFF’s devel-opmental side, Pailan Arrows have been the surprise pack-age this season having won both their games under the new management of Australian Arthur Papas. Having finished second from bottom last sea-son they have already man-aged to match last season’s win tally of 2. India internation-al Allwyn George is one for the future and has decided to stay on with the Arrows side despite interests from other clubs.Going further east, the two clubs from the north-east Shil-long Lajong and the latest entrant to the league, United
Sikkim provide some much needed flair and colour to the Indian top flight division. Unit-ed Sikkim, promoted from Di-vision 2, have been promising under the guidance of Belgian coach Philippe De Ridder and the iconic Baichung Bhutia. They play their home games at the very scenic Paljor stadium in Gangtok, Sikkim. Goan club Salgaocar have been the most pro-active among the four Goan clubs hav-ing spent a fortune in attract-ing Australian Sean Rooney as well as Angel Guirado and several young Indian talents to bolster their squad. Their start has failed to match the expec-tations though, with just one point in their first two games. Sporting Clube de Goa have been rather quiet with hardly any significant changes while Churchill Brothers look solid to build upon last season’s per-formances.Defending champions Dempo seem rather unaffected by the loss of their talismanic striker Ranti Martins, replacing him
18
with an ex-Manchester United and Arsenal youth player Ro-han Ricketts. They sit pretty at the top of the table with just two games gone. Ryoji Sueoka, signed from Salgaocar is the only other significant change to the Dempo squad.Mumbai clubs Air India and Pune FC would still be forced to play their home games away from home at Kolhapur and Pune as the Cooperage stadi-um in Mumbai is not yet ready to host any game. Air India had a fantastic campaign last
season having finished eighth under the guidance of Santosh Kashyap. They will look to re-build the side after losing most of their players and the coach to the big spending clubs, an exercise they must be getting used to by now. Mumbai FC having escaped relegation last year seem favourites to get rel-egated this year having had no major inclusions to the squad.India’s most professional club- Pune FC will be looking to bet-ter their fifth placed finish last season having made feasible
and pragmatic changes to the team and look in good shape. ONGC having been made to relocate their base from Mum-bai to the capital Delhi will pri-marily look to stay afloat and avoid relegation. Note: Lester Fernandez’s transfer from Pune FC to Prayag United set a precedent for transfer fees in Indian foot-ball as Prayag payed Pune a sum of Rs.20 Lakhs for his services.
19
special feature: Federation CupEast Bengal are Federation Cup champions
East Bengal rediscov-ered their touch in the extra-time to down Dempo SC 3-2 and reclaimed the Federa-tion Cup title that it had lost year ago, in front of a partisan crowd of around 35,000 at Siliguri’s Kanchanjungha Sta-
dium. This was the eighth title for East Bengal which they won in 16 appearances in the final.
East Bengal dominated from the start but failed to con-vert the advantage into goals as Dempo put a defensive drag-net around the crowd favou-
rite. Dempo scored the lead off Climax Lawrence before East Bengal recovered the deficit to force a 1-1 deadlock in the first 90 minutes of regulation time. Arnab Mondal scored the level-ler for East Bengal. This forced the action into extra-time where
20
East Bengal produced their best attacking game to end Dempo’s resistance. The win came as a welcome gift to the Kolkata gi-ant’s British coach Trevor James Morgan, who turned 56 today.
The two halves of the regulation time were more about retention where both the opponents aimed more at con-taining each other. East Bengal earned more scoring opportuni-ties but failed to finish the goal-ward moves except for Arnab’s goal, which the East Bengal central defender scored off a header from a Mehtab Hos-sain freekick. Dempo worked up the lead of a counter-attack
when the East Bengal de-fender Saumik Dey produced a feeble clearance, which was reached Climax Lawrence. The Dempo central midfielder collected the ball inside the East Bengal box and found the net with powerful half-volley.
East Bengal pressed on the accelerator in the extra-time introducing its super-sub Lalrin-dika Ralte in the 91st minute. The young wing-half created added pace to the team’s at-tack and set off a through-pass for Orji Penn, but the latter’s hesitation inside the Dempo box spoiled the chance. Ralte, who scored the East Bengal
winner in the semifinal against Churchill Brothers, fired a pow-erful grounder in the 99th that came off the Dempo goalkeep-er Subhasish Roy Chowdhury. East Bengal Manandeep Singh tapped the rebound home to give East Bengal the lead.
Keeping up the thrust East Bengal made it 3-1 in the 109th minute, when Chidi scored from a solo effort getting a long ball from Manandeep. Dempo kept the action alive and reduced the margin off a header from Mahesh Gawli in the 113th minute but its search for the equaliser remained unrealised.
21
special feature: interview“The triumph depicts the character of our side”: Morgan
East Bengal are off to a dream start in the domestic season winning the Federation Cup. A day prior to the kick-off of I-League 2012/13, East Bengal coach Trevor Trevor James Morgan spoke to Debayan Mukherjee at length about the forthcoming I-League, the preparations, Federation Cup triumph, the youngsters in his side and much more.
Your new recruits must have pleased you with their per-formance -- Chidi Edeh and Manandeep Singh in particular.Manan (Deep) and Chidi
are just too good. Having him on board is great. Don’t forget Dika (Lalrindika Ralte) -- he was su-perb as a substitute. I feel these like Manan and Dika are the fu-ture of Indian football. They still have a long way to go but the signs are very positive indeed.
Why is the Federation Cup triumph so significant?
It was double celebration.
The players gave me a wonder-
ful birthday gift and I was elated. It
couldn’t have been scripted better.
The boys decided to throw me up
as part of birthday bumps! They did
the exercise for 10 times odd, and
then I told them ‘you got to do this
another 46 times so get me down!’.
The triumph depicted the
character of our side. We were not
at our best in a few matches and we
managed to win scrappily. But that’s
how it is in knockout competitions.
“It was double celebration. The players
gave me a wonderful birthday gift and I was
elated. It couldn’t have been scripted better.
22
Who do you see as the fa-vourites for the I-League?I don’t want to get into it. We are looking to be-gin our campaign on a high.
The I-League is still missing from your trophy cabinet.For me personally, I don’t
work in that manner. We have so many competitions in Kolkata. So I like to take one game at a time. That should the approach. I am happy with the progress of the club. Finishing runners-up twice in the I-League is commendable indeed. I spoke about the Fed Cup where we not at our best in all the match-es. But that we won it, stays our hallmark -- of a top side.
How much will the Fed-eration Cup triumph help your team in the I-League?
Any victory brings with
it confidence but we need to
get out of the hangover. Dem-
po won’t ponder over what went
wrong in the final and so will ev-
ery side. The same implies to us.
I-League is a different ball game
altogether. But yes, our spirits will
be high spirits after the triumph.
The camaraderie is fantastic.
We need to win our first few
games as that made the difference
last time around when we narrow-
ly lost the league to Dempo. The
expectations of the fans are huge.
They expect us to win every game.
“ The expectations of
the fans are huge. They ex-
pect us to win every game.
Do you have any spe-cial plans on how to ap-proach the I-League?I am happy with my squad. We may rope in one foreigner more but I am not too sure on that. We didn’t have the funds to sign one previously and I am not aware of the status. If we do man-age to sign one more player, it would be an attacking player.
23
special featureSemi Final Reports
East Bengal rode Lal-rindika Ralte’s goal in the 110th minute of extra-time to out-last the challenge of 10-man Churchill Brothers in the first semifinal of the 34th Federation Cup at the Kanchanjungha Sta-dium. Ralte, who came in as a substitute in the 91st minute af-ter an unproductive 90 minutes of regulation time, created the difference with a spectacular shot to help East Bengal enter
its fourth consecutive final entry.East Bengal will now
take on the winner of Friday’s second semifinal between Dempo SC and Salgaocar SC, in the final on Sunday. East Bengal started overtly defen-sive and stymied the initial exu-berance of Churchill Brothers. The Kolkata side reconstructed its attack after the break and played a nice tactical game to ensure the win in the extra-time.
Coming in for Harmanjot Khabra in the East Bengal mid-field, Ralte fired an angular right-footer that beat the Churchill Brothers custodian Sandip Nandy all ends up. Ralte was reached unmarked in Churchill box by a smart header from Ni-gerian Orji Penn, who brought down a freekick from Mehtab Hussain. Churchill was reduced to 10 men in the 113th minute when its substitute midfielder
East Bengal ride Ralte’s late goal to enter final
24
Israil Gurung sent off with a red card for a foul on the East Ben-gal midfielder Sanju Pradhan.
The first and second half remained barren as both the side tried abortively to breach
each other’s defence. East Bengal forwards Edeh Chdi, Manandeep Singh and substi-tute Baljit Singh Sahni could not be sharp enough. Finally, Ralte produced the intended
finish which brought an end to a protracted action, which sel-dom rose above mediocrity.
-Courtesy The AIFF Media Team
Dempo fix summit date with East Bengal
Dempo SC scored two second half goals to end the hopes of the defending champion Salgaocar SC in the second semifinal of the 34th Federation Cup at Sili-guri’s Kanchanjungha Stadium today. The two men in Dempo attack, Joaquim Abranches and Nigerian Koko Sakibo, found the target in tandem in the final quarter of the match.
Dempo, which last reached the final in 2008, will take on local favourite East Bengal in the title round on Sunday. With Dempo’s entry to the final East Bengal was en-sured a place in the AFC Cup as the Goa club is the de-fending I-League champion.
The second half turned exciting following a goalless opening session, where both the teams adopted a cau-tious approach. Salgaocar played with 10 men in the fi-nal three minutes defender Fulganco Cardozo was given marching order following his second booking of the match.
The first half saw the ac-tion concentrated chiefly in the midfield though Dempo earned two opportunities. The chances went a-begging as Abranches failed to find the target. Sal-gaocar’s lost a good change to establish the lead in the 31st minute Fulganco Cardozo saw his attempt following a corner cleared from the line by Dempo
midfielder ClimaxLawrence.Dempo came back
strongly after the break but could not find the lead early the Salgaocar goalkeeper Karan-jit Singh saved the attempts Peter Carvalho (49th min-ute) and Sakibo (70th minute).
Abranches found the break in the 74th minute firing a nice side-volley on a cross from 53rd minute substitute Romeo Fernandes. Dempo found the insurance goal in the 85th min-ute when Sakibo collected a cross from Anthony Perreira, took a sharp turn to clear the Salgaocar defender Luciano Sabrosa and bulged the Salga-ocar net with a powerfuldrive.
25
interview“This year, the team is more united”: BetoIn an exclusive talk with Barefoot’s Isha Panwar, Beto’ discusses his team’s perfor-mance in the recently concluded Federation Cup and outlines the plan ahead for the I League.
26
Beto regards this edi-tion with a mixed bag of emo-tions because as he and his team, Churchill Brothers man-aged to deliver the hard work of two months’ worth of pre-season training in the form of good football they could not do good enough and failed to bring home the trophy. He says, “We have to remember the good things to move on and learn from the bad.”On the is-sue of deteriorating conditions at two venues, Beto maintains that it was a bad experience for Dempo, East Bengal and every football club and Indian football.
“We have to remember the good
things to move on and learn from the bad.
“
27
The disappointment is hard to digest but he con-tends that even though they did not win the title, their Federa-tion Cup run was a display of Churchill’s improved abilities. With the I League in its ini-tial stages, he sees his team developing well in course of the tournament and adds, “We will definitely fight for the championship and we know it’s not going to be easy but Bhowmick is doing a good job and the players are focused and committed to the cause.”
“This year, the team is more
united and every one believes
that we can make things happen,
A new manager and a few changes in the squad from last year, can we expect a different brand of football from Churchill in the upcom-ing season?Well, Beto says, last year began well with win-ning the Durand Cup and even in the I League, Churchill were fighting strong for the top spot-despite finishing third. “This year, the team is more united and every one believes that we can make things happen, so hope for the championship is burning strong,” he signs off.
“The conditions at
Siliguri and Jamshedpur
were bad for all the teams
featureAIFF signs professional contract with FIFA referees
FIFA Referees Pratap Singh, CR Srikrishna and MB Santosh Kumar signed a pro-fessional contract, the first of its kind in India with All India Foot-ball Federation at the Football House, the AIFF Headquar-ters on Thursday (October 5).
This is the first time any referee has been brought under a contract system. The event took place as the two-day Match Commissioner and Referee As-sessor Education Course end-ed at the AIFF Headquarters. Kushal Das, General Secre-tary, AIFF signed the contract along with the three referees.
Head of Referees Gou-
tam Kar, who conducted the seminar, spoke about the sig-nificance of the matter. “It is an epoch making day for referees in India. This is a seven month contract which the three ref-erees are being signed. They will get their monthly salaries and all other expenses ex-cept match fee will be taken care of by AIFF,” he informed.
“The contract will run from October to May on a trial ba-sis. After assessing its pros and cons we will extend it,” he added.
FIFA referee Pratap Singh said: “I feel honoured to be a part of this professional system. It means we have to put
in that extra bit on match days and do our job more prudently and with care. We are thank-ful to AIFF for choosing us.”
Santosh Kumar added it’s a dream come true. “We have got the boost to give our best and improve ourselves. We have been trusted with added responsibility and we are ready to grateful to AIFF.”
Srikrishna main-tained: “Our responsibility has increased. We cannot let AIFF down. I want to thank the Federation for thinking us worthy of the contract.”
-Courtesy The AIFF Media Team
28
COVER STORY
SUBROTO CUP“The Nursery of Indian Football”
cover storySubroto Cup: The Indian Football Nursery
31
The Subroto Mukherjee Cup has been a trend setter in In-dian sports. It was the first age-group sports tournament in India. It was launched in 1960 in memory of the late Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee, an ardent football fan. For years it was organized by the Durand football tournament committee. In 1994, the Air Force Sports Control took over the Subroto Cup tournament and has been conducting it since then.The Subroto Cup started as a competition for schoolboys U-17 years of age. Preliminary tournaments are held in every state and union territory of India and the winners travel to Delhi to play in the final rounds. The boys stay in a camp during the tournament so that it also helps in national integration. In 1988 at request of the School Games Federation of Indian (SGFI) the organizers started a sub-junior (11-14 years) football tourna-ment, in which school teams from Bokaro, Mizoram and Meghalaya have excelled.Since 1960, the Subroto Mukherjee Cup Football tourna-ment has been a launching pad for many promising school boy players. The list is exhaustive. It includes illustrious India inter-nationals such as Parimal Dey,
Mohan Singh, Shyam Thapa in the 1960s, Parminder Singh, Prasanta Banerjee and Shya-mal Banerjee in the 1970s and Bruno Continho, Kabir Bose, Pratap Senapati and Thomas Khusboo in the 1980s. In the last decade of the 20th centu-ry emerged stalwarts such as Baichung Bhutia, Ajay Kumar Singh, Bijen Singh, Amit Das and Sangram Mukherjee, all of whom initially shone in the Subroto Cup. Two outstand-
ing players, from the Army boys units of Danapur and Banga-lore respectively have emerged in the early years of the new millennium, namely goalkeeper V.P. Satish Kumar and striker Ashim Biswas. In recent years junior internationals, Zaidin-mawia, Pohshang Poibang and talented Sanju Pradhan (now playing for East Bengal) were first spotted in the Subroto Cup.Incidentally ex-international midfielder Parminder Singh
32
was the first Subroto Cup scholarship winner to repre-sent India at the senior level. The tournament committee in-troduced scholarships in 1972 and Parminder playing for State Sports School (SSS) Jalandhar got the coveted scholarship in 1974. Baichung was a scholar-ship winner for Tashi Namgyal School, Gangtok in the early 1990s and Bijen Singh excelled for Sainik School, Imphal, in 1996 and was selected for the Indian schools team the same year. Next year Bijen joined East Bengal. Midfielder Amit Das and goalkeeper Sangram Mukherjee won the trophy with Madhyamgram HS and Sukan-tangar Vidya Niketan, Calcutta respectively. Former interna-tional midfielder Ajay Kumar Singh also helped his school St. Ignatius Gumla emerge champions in 1990. V.P. Satish Kumar, the Dempo goalkeeper excelled for his unit Army Boys Bangalore which finished run-ners up in the 2001 Subroto Cup, whereas striker Ashim Biswas was in the Army Boys Danapur squad, runners up in 2000. However it is as a nursery of talent that the Sub-roto Cup will always be remem-
bered.For over four decades, the Subroto Cup has spread the popularity of football all over India and teams from the re-mote islands of Andaman and Nicobar and distant Arunachal Pradesh have participated in India’s oldest age-group tour-nament. Above all the Subroto Cup’s greatest contribution is that it has brought to the fore-ground the latent talent in the North-East. The fact that every club team in the recent National Football League or I-League competitions had players from the North-East, especially Ma-nipur is primarily due to the ini-tial exposure provided by the Subroto Cup to players from this region.The first school team from the North-East to win the Subroto Cup was St. Anthony’s HS Shil-long in 1978. They beat Mad-hyamgram HS, West Bengal 1-0 in the final. The first all North-East final was in 1980 when Ibemcha HSS, Manipur beat Govt. HSS Kokrajhar, As-sam 1-0. In 1986 for the first time, three schools from the North-East reached the last four of the Subroto Cup. In the 1970s and early eighties talent-
ed players from the North-East region were spotted in the Sub-roto Cup, unfortunately though they faded as they got little ex-posure at the senior level. But all that has changed. In the re-cent past there has been a re-thinking on the concept of de-veloping football talent from the North-East. In 2004-05, the All India Football Federation with the help of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) launched an ambitious Vision India pro-gramme in Manipur. This pro-gramme with its emphasis on broad-basing the game and im-proving the quality of coaches has added to the popularity of the game in Manipur. The In-dian Air Force (IAF) is recruit-ing promising players from Mizoram and the North-East on a stipend basis, to play for their senior team. Ultimately it was Subroto Mukherjee Cup that revealed the abundance of tal-ent in the North-East. The Sub-roto Cup has evidently been the platform for a right start to our budding football stars. And defi-nitely, the tournament is a must-watch for anybody interested in spotting a future star!
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cover story: match reportUnder 17 Boy’s Final: Dynamo Kyiv prove their class
MSP Malappuram, Ker-ala became the first team to score a goal against Ukraine’s FC Dynamo Kyiv but even that was not enough for the Indian team to stop the visi-tors from winning the final 5-2 to lift the boy’s U-17 Subroto Cup crown here on Monday.
The Ukraine outfit was the outright favorite for the title given their clinical display en route to the final, but the Kerala team, who had qualified for the Subroto cup final for the very first time in the history of the tournament was determined not to go down without a fight in front of a vociferous crowd that had gathered to support them.
The first few minutes went according to the script with the European team asserting their supremacy with posses-
sion football and Dmytro Zayikin scoring two of his four goals in the 10th and 13th minute.
However, the two goals did little to dampen the spir-it of the Kerala boys, who brought the stadium on its feet through a 15th minute strike by Muhammed Sabith.
Unsettled by the goal, Ukraine pressed harder but Ker-ala goalkeeper Vishnu VK man-aged to hold them off for anoth-er 10 minutes before two more goals in four minutes made the result a foregone conclusion.
Despite the loss, Ker-ala coach Benoy C James praised his side for the fight-ing display. “The way our boys attacked and secured the first goal that definitely had raised our confidence and the crowd support gave us all the more
support. It is the first time that Kerala had qualified for the fi-nals in the history of Subroto Cup and we are happy with the performance of the boys.”
Ukraine team manager Ivan also had a word of praise for their opponents. “When the Indian team scored the first goal and with the crowd sup-port all for the local team, our boys had initial jitters but soon we were back to playing self.
Dynamo Kyiv scored a total of 34 goals in 7 matches of the tournament. “This was Ukraine’s first shot in the tour-nament and it was a great ex-perience for us. The boys saw some great competition and we are looking forward to come back next year,” Ivan added.
34
New initiatives planned for Subroto Cup
Speaking at the award ceremony, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshall NAK Browne underlined the growing popu-larity of the tournament say-ing many European clubs, including FC Barcelona, are keen to send their teams.
“Keeping the interest alive we will do a club tourna-ment for the foreign teams along side this tournament,” he added.
The organizers also selected 25 players from the tournament who were
given a one time scholar-ship of Rs 25000 each.
Meanwhile, tourna-ment sponsor Adidas also an-nounced its initiative to adopt 10 talented players after the tournament as part of their ‘Generation Adidas Program’.
“These talented foot-ballers will be provided world class equipment and gear, and access to international training and coaching oppor-tunities” said Tushar Gokul-das, Brand Director, Adidas.
Result: FC Dynamo Kyiv, Ukraine 5 (Dmytro Zayikin
10, 13, 29, 41; Zo Rostslav 25) bt MSP High School 2 (Muhammed Sabith 15, 54)
Other winnersBest Player- Dmytrd
Zayirya. He scored 15 goals in the tournament.
Best Coach: Segaie B, Ukraine
Best GK: Vishnu V.K, Kerela.
Best Promising Player: Y Julet Singh, Manipur;
Fair Play: Air Force School Subroto Park, Delhi.
Top Scorer from India-R Pratap: TN
Oriental English School, Imphal Win U-17 Girls Tournament
\ A tactically brilliant Ori-ental English School, Manipur got the better of Government Mizo High School, Mizoram by a solitary goal to become the first girls u-17 team to lift the All India Subroto Cup Football tro-phy here on Thursday.
The Manipur girls began the summit clash as underdogs against the free scoring Mizo teams, whose star striker Offee
Lalmingahualpuia had scored 14 goals in five matches before the final in this inaugu-ral edition of the girl’s under-17 tournament.
But in the final, the striker was shadowed throughout and hardly got a scoring opportunity. The Manipur girlsconcentrated on fortifying their citadel and
MK Kashmina showed brilliant presence of mind to nod home the winner in the 36th minute off a flag kick, which proved to be the winner.
On the other hand, Gov-ernment Mizo school players looked lacked Plan B once Of-fee was heavily marked and that cost them the match.
Manipur coach R K Amusana gave full credit to the team for the success say-ing they executed the plan bril-liantly. “We had specific plans for the games. We had studied the opponents and had en-sured that Offee was marked well. Our players did a good job in executing the plan and that is the reason for our success,” said Amusana, who was later
named the Best Coach of the tournament.
Kashmina, who had rep-resented India at the under-13 level, was ecstatic after the fi-nal whistle and said he was overwhelmed by the fact that she provided the team the rea-son to celebrate through her goal.
“We missed quite a few opportunities. But finally I could be the reason for the win feels good,” she added.
There was sizeable crowd to witness the final, prom-inent among them were Indian women’s team goalkeeper Aditi Chowhan, international Sush-mita Mallick and India’s first women’s team captain Shanti Mallick. The trio was felicitated
35
by the Subroto Mukherjee Edu-cation Sports Society and In-dian Air Force for their achieve-ments at the SAF Competition. They won the tournament this week.
Speaking on the occa-sion, Sushmita said, “ the need of the hour is exposure and opportunities to play with bet-ter and strong teams. In our growing days, there was noth-ing but the national tournament. But the initiative taken by Sub-
roto Cup is brilliant and we as international players also want to contribute in this cause.”The winning team took home a prize purse of Rs 2 lakh while the runners up had to settle for Rs 1 lakh.
Result: Oriental English School, Manipur 1 (MK Kash-mina 36) bt Government Mizo High School, Mizorum
Other Awardees:Best Goalkeeper -K Lal-
hruaizeli (Government Mizo
High School, Mizorum)Best Player- Lhing-
neikim Kips (Oriental English School, Manipur)
Highest Scorer-Of-fee Lalmingahualpuia (Gov-ernment Mizo High School, Mizoram)
Best Coach- R K Amu-sana (Oriental English School, Manipur)
Fair Play- Ramkrishna Saratha Higher Secondary School, Tamil Nadu
Greenwood School Assam win Under-14 title
Greenwood Higher Sec-ondary School, Nagaland goal-keeper Neithovilie was the star of the occasion as the North East team defeated Kalyan-garh Bidyamandir, West Ben-gal 3-1 in the penalty shoot out
to lift the u-14 boys title in the 53rd Subroto Cup Football tour-nament here on Monday.
The last year’s runners-up, who were playing with 10 players throughout the tour-nament since others failed to
qualify the requisite medical test, would have to thank their goalkeeper for bringing home the title after he first kept the West Bengal side at bay during the regulation time and extra time and then showed his mag-
36
ic in the penalties.Neithovilie stopped the
spot kicks of Sanjib Bhowmick, Sourav Biswas and Prokash Sarkar and could not hide his elation after blocking the last shot that ensured that the team regained the title they had last won in 2008.
“This is my first time and it was a fabulous opportunity and I learnt a lot from this ex-perience,” said Neithovilie, who was adjudicated the best goal-keeper of the tournament.
Earlier, both teams be-gan at a brisk pace and it was Kalyangarh who had the first crack at goal in the third minute. However, Neithovilie stood firm to block the long ranger. The teams continued to push for-ward but failed to find a break-through in regulation time.
This was also the first time that the Nagaland team failed to score a goal in regu-
lation time, having pumped in 22 in the three league matches and three more in the knock out stage while conceding just one.
In the shootout, Kalyan-garh looked like the favourites since they had handled a simi-lar situation during the semifi-nals and should have been bet-ter prepared. However, that was not the case as the three play-ers succumbed to the pressure and played in the hands of the goalkeeper.
Nagaland Coach Mu-ghato Sumi said the team had worked very hard after the dis-appointment of losing in the fi-nal last year.
“The introduction of the Nagaland Premier League has given huge impetus to football in Nagaland. Parents have be-come more open to send their children for
football,” he said, adding the team’s next goal is to train
further and come back and win the U-17 tournament, which they have never won before.
The AIFF scouters also shortlisted 25 boys for one time scholarship of Rs 10,000 and 15 of them from the same pool-will be adopted by the Subroto Mukherjee Sports Education Society for training them, nur-turing their talent.
Results of Final (Penalty Shootout)
Bengal 1 ( Sandip Roy) Sanjib Bhowmik;Sourav Biswas; Prokash Sarkar (Missed)
Nagaland 3 (Nyithung, Osen and Piketo)
Other Awardees:Best Player: Sourav
Biswas (Kalyangarh Bidyaman-dir, West Bengal)
Best Goalkeeper: Neithovilie (Greenwood School, Nagaland)
Fair Play: Namchi Sports Hostel, Sikkim
37
Welcome to India Sir, how has been the experience so far?We’re grateful to the or-
ganizers for the invite and cher-ish the opportunity that we have been bestowed with. India has been a really nice experience so far. Hopefully we will man-age to perform at our optimum best throughout the tournament.
interview“We are here to show how good we are”: Oleksandr Ischenko
Is it the full Under-17 squad from Dynamo Kiev which has come to participate in the tournament?This team is part of the academy that we run there and was established in 1997. We are providing them all the infra-structural facilities and hope-fully some of them will go on to represent the senior team.
How did the idea of participat-
ing in Subroto Cup come along?
It is mainly through the ef-forts of Group Captain Ashutosh Lal (part of the Indian embassy in Ukraine) and State Foreign Trade Enterprise “SpetsTech-noExport” who collaborated to send our team here. We didn’t know about the tournament be-fore but they informed us about the rich heritage of Subroto Cup and we’re really happy to be here.
Fresh off playing hosts at the recently concluded EURO 2012, Dynamo Kiev’s senior coach- Oleksandr Ischenko talks ex-clusively to Barefoot about his team’s experience at the ongo-ing Subroto Cup and the steady growth of football in Ukraine amongst other things.
With EURO, has the outlook towards foot-ball altered in Ukraine?
Definitely, EURO was
a great exposure for all of us.
We saw how both Ukraine and
Poland governments came
forward to organize it better.
It surely provides the game
an impetus in our country.
On a different note, An-
driy Shevchenko is back
to Dynamo Kiev. How big a
boost is that for these kids?
It’s a huge opportunity
for all of them. Shevchenko,
along with a lot of other se-
nior players are part of a team
at Kiev who coach thse kids.
That according to me is the big-
gest boon for the kids as most
of them have gron up idolising
him over the past decade or so.
P.S. This interview was taken at the start of the tournament
38
feature: Bordoloi CupOIL thump Assam Rifles 4-1 to win 61st Bordoloi trophy 2012
Guwahati: Oil India Limited (OIL) thumped As-sam Rifles 4-1 in the finals of the 61st Bharat Ratna Loko-priya Gopinath Bordoloi Trophy Football Tournament 2012 here in Nehru Stadium, Guwa-hati. Though the lashing rain in the morning left the ground very vulnerable to injuries, as water logged in curtail areas, while the goal box remained engulfed among mud. But this could not spoil the excitement and electricity of this high volt-
age encounter of between two local giants. Though the Bor-lodoi Trophy has lost its old charm, where once teams like Mohun Bagan AC, East Ben-gal, Dempo and even foreign teams like Bangkok and Iran participated, yet enthusiastic crowd marked their attendance to see their favorite team play, despite the fact that rain god acted a bit harsh on his part.
As the match kicked off, the intentions of both the teams were quite clear, it was all about
attack. Just into the 1stminute and Assam Rifles earned the first corner of the match.
However, the first goal of the match came from the OIL side as Manas Manji Chetia headed one into the lower right corner of the post in the 15th minute.
OIL player at-tempts one past the As-sam Rifles Goal Keeper
Assam Rifles was awarded a free kick near the goal box, just 7 minutes after the first goal, but the captain S
-by Amlan J. Das
39
-by Amlan J. Das
Meerei stuck the ball right into the goalkeeper’s hand, wast-ing a wonderful opportunity.
It was Manas Man-jit Cheita again who doubled the score for OIL, when he scored off a brilliant ball from the right corner by Mintu Boro in the 27th minute of game.
With two goals lead, OIL went in an attacking spree as they went very near to scoring in the 33rd and 37th minute. Both the times it was Zaidin Hmar who missed the easy opportunities to further strengthen their lead.
The first half ended with a score line of 2-0 in favor of OIL.
Just 3 minutes after both the teams took the ground for the second time, Jayanta Ba-sumutary tripled the score for OIL, making the situation more complicated for the rifles.
Assam Rifles looked a far consolidated team in the second half as they desper-ately tried to establish a grip in the match. With 3 goals down, the players looked frus-trated this resulted in a couple of clashes with the opposition.
However in the 76th min-ute N Thang Kuki brilliantly angled one past the goalkeep-er beating two OIL defend-ers to minimize the margin.
But the game was all over for the Rifles when N Naoba Singh committed a foul in the Rifles box, which re-sulted in a penalty to the OIL in the 85th minute. The deci-sion of the penalty was heav-ily resented by Ajit Kumar Singh of the Rifles, who was awarded a Yellow card for the misbehavior with the referee.
Zaidin Hmar took the penalty for OIL, and he net-ted it into the right corner sealing the match for OIL.
Rifles tried hard towards the later part of the game to min-imize the goal difference, but they failed. Thus OIL clinched the 61st Bordoloi Trophy 2012. This is the third time, that OIL have won the prestigious trophy after having repeating the same feat way back in 1990 and 2008.
In the post match cer-emony, F Wary of OIL was awarded the Player of the Final trophy, while OIL goalkeeper, Jitu Chetry was awarded the best goal keeper award. The award ceremony was pre-sided over by Hamendra Nath Brahma, president of the As-sam Football Association.
Describing his liking for the game a histo-rian tells : “He was never a serious play-
er himself, but seems to have taken the game to heart, above even his first loves of cricket and cycling – perhaps because at the time football was the favou-rite sport of the less-affluent classes”. The fact that the less af-fluent classes liked the game he used it as a tool to unite people.During his stint in South Africa he helped establish three football clubs at the beginning of the last centu-ry, in Durban, Pretoria and Johan-nesburg, all of which were given the same name: Passive Resisters Soccer Club. FIFA describes him as “football legend”. Who is be-
ing talked about?
He was the first captain (in 1946-47) of Red Star Belgrade, the
most successful Serbian Club and one of the major forces in erst-while Yugoslavia later switch-ing allegiance to their biggest ri-vals FK Partizan. Compared to his playing career he had a long coaching career during which he managed both Red Star Belgrade and FK Partizan, Besiktas, Lazio, Valencia, Yugoslavian, and Is-raeli national teams, finally end-ing his long journey with Indian national team in 1985. Name him.
Which inaugu-ral DCM Foot-ball tournament winning team has the same
nickname as Villareal FC of La Liga taken from a Beatles album?
The club was formed in 1999 after its ances-tor folded up, modelled on 19 times Portuguese league win-ners Sporting Lisbon, their crest is almost an exact replica of the Portuguese giants. Name the club known as the ‘Flaming Orange’.
It started in 1952 when a cer-tain Vasudevan _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ laid the foun-
dation for the development of a thriving mining industry and ex-port trade of the company, V. M. _________ & Bro. Pvt. Ltd. It is one of the leading Indian suppli-ers of processed iron ore to NSC and POSCO, which are amongst the world’s largest steel makers, besides other steel mills in China, Romania, and the Middle East. The commercial activities are not just limited to mining, but have been expanded to include various ventures in the fields of hospitality, travel & tourism and real estate. Apart from these business activi-ties, the company lays great em-
phasis on contributing to the soci-ety. The V.M._______ Hospital, the V.M. ______ College of Law, the V.M. ______ Foundation are some examples of the group’s so-cial concerns. Fill in the blanks.
He is of Indian-Surinamese de-scent, having trained in the youth academy of Ajax Amster-dam he currently plies his trade in the Dutch Eredivisive side SC Heerenveen, currently among the Top 20 scorers in the league. Name this footballer who is also part of the Netherlands U21 national team.
X who runs a trust to support In-dian athletes to achieve their dream of win-ning an Olym-pic gold is also a part owner of
the Premier League side A, his brother Y took over one of the big-gest Bulgarian clubs B in late 2006 and later sold it after a tumultuous period of ownership which saw the club move from one crisis to the next. Give all the variables.
He is founder of Bahrain-based asset manage-ment company Western Gulf Advisory, af-ter he failed in his takeover bid
The very tough INDIAN FOOTBALL QUIZQ1
know your game
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q5
Q6
Q7
Q840
of the EPL side Blackburn Rov-ers, went ahead and bought the La Liga side X (currently lan-guishing in the relegation zone).Sunil Chhetri gave trials for the club but without success. Name the businessman and the club.
What novelty have Mumbai based Mirah Group brought to Indian fans of Man-chester United in India?
This multi-faceted per-s o n a l i t y led Bengal
cricket team to the Ranji Trophy
final twice. In his cricket career, he played 46 first class matches, scor-ing 1592 runs and took 47 wickets. On one occasion he even turned out for his club hockey team. He also enacted a featured part in a Bengali movie Prothom Prem. In 2005 he was appointed the Sher-iff of Kolkata. Why am I ask-ing about him in a football quiz?
He was the captain when India won its last trophy of repute (Asian Youth cham-pionships in Bangkok jointly with Iran in 1974) with a performance that earned him praise from the then Indian
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He went on to cement his reputation as the best Indian striker of his generation. In the 1976 Merdeka Cup he scored a hat trick against Indonesia in 35 minutes. By the time he hung his boots in 1985 he was capped 110 times for the Indian national team (still a na-tional record) and scored 35 goals; which places him at no. 4 among India’s highest goal scorers. Who?
Answers and discussions on: facebook.com / barefoot india §
Q9
Q10Q11
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Disappointment at the Under 16 AFC Championship
42
feature
Match 1: India lose plot against Uzbekistan
India started off brightly in the tournament with Uttam Rai’s brace helping India equal-ize against Uzbekistan. If the first was off a feint from the cor-ner of the inner box, then for the other, he jumped in between the two rival stoppers to meet substitute Raja Rawat’s cross.
However, Uzbekistan, coming into the Championship with an experience of more than 34 International Matches in the last eight months, managed to hold on as they prevailed 3-2 in the end. For Uzbekistan, Odilov Mukhiddin, Abdullaev Ibrokhim and substitute Abdiganiyev Il-homjon scored one apiece.
Character was on dis-play as India, a goal down twice, came back to frustrate strong contenders Uzbekistan – the same team to whom they had lost 0-9 in the qualifiers last year in Tashkent. The blocking in the midfield and the initiation in the second half was com-mendable. So much so, that
Uzbekistan, quite dominant in the first half, almost lost the plot.
In the first half, India be-gan on a positive note trying to seize the initiative early. In the 6th minute, striker Daniel Lal-himpuia anticipated well and latched onto a loose ball but the rival goalkeeper Eshbutaev Shokrukhjon recovered well in time to palm his intended over-head lob. Off the counter, India conceded – Odilov Mukhiddin sneaking in between to beat Supratim Bhattacharya off a first timer.
Regrouped, the Indians pressed and in the process earned a number of free-kicks in the Uzbek half but they man-aged to hold onto the one-goal lead till the interval.
Changing over, India equalised almost immediately when Uttam Rai headed in Dan-iel Lalhimpuia’s freekick from the corner of the inner box.
But it couldn’t last long as in the 53rd minute, Abdul-
laev Ibrokhim converted from the spot after the referee felt Myron Mendes had brought down Odilov inside the box. Seven minutes later, India suf-fered a jolt in the 60th minute when captain Lalramzuava had to be replaced for a calf and hamstring cramp. Lalramzuava was by then, marshalling the midfield with confidence, which had pushed the Uzbeks onto the backfoot.
Uzbekistan sealed the fate of the match in the 80th minute when Ilhomjon vol-leyed in a low cross from the right. For the last ten minutes, India went all out but it was not enough to break through. As the boys dragged themselves to the team bus ending up yet another time on the other side of a close counter which could have garnered them a point, ap-preciation flew from the crowd. The irony stays, the final whistle remembers only the result.
A confident and resurgent effort from India’s colts could not help them tame Uzbekistan, reports Nilanjan Datta of The AIFF Media Team
43
Match 2: India held by SyriaComing into the match as the underdogs, India’s grit throughout the game gave them a much need-ed point
The Indian team’s organization caught them on the wrong foot. A true team effort all through-out the 90 minutes earned India their first point in the AFC U-16 Championship as India was held to a goalless draw by Syr-ia. India stay very much alive in the tournament at the moment of this report being written.The team effort which put up the organisation planned to per-fection by Colm Joseph Toal, could have even earned India full three points if not the post that stood to deny Lalramzuava off a freekick and had some of those headers off set-plays not conspired against India.The start just could not have
been better. Not overawed by the physical presence of the Syrians, most of who were al-most 6-feet, the nippy Indians played among themselves at a fast pace and restricted the game to the rival half. The ini-tial thrust almost paid dividends when in the sixth minute, cap-tain Lalramzuava’s free-kick from the edge of the box beat all only to hit the post and bounce back. Three minutes later, ri-val goalkeeper Khaled Ibrahim gathered it in time before either Sarthak Golui or Uttam Rai could pounce upon it again.Changing over, Sryia pressed early and broke into the Indian box a couple of occasions with-
in the first three minutes but the Indians regrouped.In the 50th minute, a diving Khaled kept off a Alen Deory effort and the very next minute, Uttam Rai’s touch just got that bit longer as he had almost got past rival central defender, Je-had Bssmar, who stood tall al-most throughout.In the 73rd minute, Uttam broke past the entire defence but the Syrians managed to hold fort. In the last 10 minutes, Syria went all out but the Indian or-ganisation prevailed over their efforts. Coming off a valiant game against Syria with a much deserved point, India now face China in the next game.
File photo
44
Match 3: India U-16 colts rally to hold ChinaReport on India’s agonizing exit from the tournament after an unlucky draw against China.
India finished their campaign on two points from three matches while China finished three with three draws from three match-es. Syria who beat Uzbekistan 1-0 topped the group while Uz-bekistan moved to the quarters as the second team from the group.Let’s for a moment look at the FIFA Rankings. Uzbekistan are 5th in AFC, China 6th and Syria 21st in the AFC ladder. Compare that with India at 32 in AFC, and one is compelled to the laud the Indian boys.Against China which was a must win for India, India surged into the lead in the 18th minute through Daniel Lalhimpuia and rang exit bells for China in the injury time when Myron Mendes converted a penalty from the
spot in the 93rd minute.Despite playing all over the Chi-nese half for most part of the second half, the crowd of legs in the rival defence did not allow India to break free. India trailed 1-2 at the interval. The thrust of Indian attacks had forced the rivals back. Add to that the second goal conceeded, a de-flection of a defender which changed direction to bounce into the net in the 33rd minute, the boys stayed unlucky.Inspiringly, the Indians did not give up and eventually were rewarded in the 93rd minute when substitute striker Vanl-alduatsanga was pushed inside the box and the penalty was gleefully converted by Myron. A 2-1 score would have ensured China a spot in the quarters.
“When you play as team, rank-ings don’t matter. The organisa-tion of our boys was good and they supported each other. Our performance proves football is a team game. I’m very proud of our performance,” Head Coach Colm Joseph Toal maintained after the match.The Indians were applauded on their return to their Hotel by the Uzbekistan team contingent who stayed grateful to India for earning them a spot in the last eight. An Indian defeat would have also seen them packing their bags home. Interestingly, though, this Indian team is dif-ferent. They don’t give up till the final whistle. China paid the price for it.
File photo
45
St. Michaels Rink Football Tournament
report
The second edition of the Rink football tournament or-ganized by St. Michaels youth continued on the 22nd and 23rd of september at the same ven-ue, St. Xaviers grounds ,Mahim.
A total of sixteen match-es were played over the second weekend that the tournament was conducted and ultimately after a long wait ,pronounced the team ‘ sound dust ‘ as the winners of the tournament who were handed over the trophy gladly by chief guest and well known sports personality Mr. Henry Menezes who is the CEO at the Western India Football Association (WIFA) and Fr. Clif-ton Lobo who assists the youth of St. Michael’s Church Mahim.
‘Sound Dust’ played team ‘V.F.A’ in the finals and it
was a very crucial match fought in the right spirit of the game. The ‘Player of the tournament’ award was won by Aaron from team V.F.A for his spectacular performance in most matches they played. All of the match-es played over the weekend managed to bring out a high level of skill and determination from the players who were all very eager to take the trophy home. All fought for it but in a fair spirit which bought the suc-cessful rink football tournament to an end with a positive vibe.
-by Sajin Padiyath
“The ‘Player of the tournament’
award was won by Aaron from team
V.F.A for his spectacular performance
