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| Kathmandu, Tuesday February 18, 2003 Falgun 06, 2059. |
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Tribhuvan Club beat ANFA Academy to enter final
By Purushottam
Katttel
BHADRAPUR, Feb 17 :
Royal Nepal Army’s Tribhuvan Club edged past ANFA Academy 2-1 to enter the final of
the Tribhuvan Memorial Gold Cup Football tournament on Monday.
Tribhuvan Club will now
take on Eveready Association, Kolkata for the title on Wednesday.
The army outfit
dominated the match in the first half and were rewarded with a goal as early as in the
11th minute of the match. In-form Sahila Maharjan struck a powerful rightfooter from the
edge but ANFA goalie Bikash Malla failed to gather it cleanly only to see a superb goal
from Padam Rai. The goal forced rookie Malla to lie down for more than two minutes on the
ground.
The superb running and
great stamina saw army give a tough time to their opponents in the first half. ANFA just
got a chance to bring the match at level two minutes from the half time but Prabin
Manandhar failed to connect a header off Pradip Dangol’s free-kick.
The half time talks
made former National captain Raju Shakya’s side more aggressive and ANFA Academy
started playing fluently but still faltered at several junctures.
"Our boys played
to their potentials but they committed two silly mistakes in the match and Tribhuvan Club
capitalised on both mistakes," Shakya said. "Besides a hectic schedule and lack
of practice for three days resulted in the lack of coordination among our boys at the
centre," he added.
On the other hand,
Shakya’s counterpart Tribhuvan Club’s coach Sujan KC appreciated his opponents
and showed dissatisfaction over the performance of army team. "As usual my
team’s technical aspects remained very poor in this match. We outwitted them
physically but could not
score over them mentally," KC said. "Hopefully, they Won’t repeat some
unforgivable errors on Wednesday’s final," he added.
ANFA pulled one back in
the 60th minute to come back in the match. Subash Rai slotted a well-executed free kick
from just outside the 18-yard area of the right wing after an army defender tackled
ferociously. Bijay Gurung connected a perfect header but the ball kissed the cross bar and
landed just in front of the local lad Prashant Giri who headed home the equalizer. The
goal was the first goal army keeper Channu Ram Chaudhary has conceded in the tournament.
ANFA made frequent
raids at the army territory but the army men took the lead when Sahila Maharjan latched a
powerful shot inside the vacant ANFA goal in the 88th minute.
Midfielder Shiva
Chaudhary supplied a pass from the wing and in his desperate attempt to save the ball,
ANFA keeper left the post vacant and failed to even touch the ball. In the injury time
ANFA received a golden chance to pull one back but Saugat Subba fired the ball wide.
Prashant Giri, the
captain of ANFA Academy side was adjudged the man of the match. The final of the
tournament between Tribhuvan Club and Eveready Association will be staged on Wednesday.
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