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| Kathmandu, Thursday February 20, 2003 Falgun 08, 2059. |
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Tribhuvan
Club clinch Tribhuvan Gold Cup
By Purushottam
Kattel
BHADRAPUR, Feb 19 :
Surendra Chaudhary struck a golden goal to help Royal Nepal Army’s Tribhuvan Club
lift the Tribhuvan Memorial Gold Cup Football tournament’s title beating Eveready
Association, Kolkata 2-1 on Wednesday.
It is the first major
title for Tribhuvan Club in four years. They last won the National Football Championship
held in 1999 in Nepalgunj.
The army men scored
their first goal in the first half but Kolkata equalised in the second half. They sealed
the match in the 92nd minute in slippery conditions due to persistent rain.
In just two minutes of
the extra period, match referee Shreeram Ranjitkar offered a freekick to the army team.
Babukaji Dhaubanjar’s powerful freekick deflected from the wall and hit the cross bar
as advancing S Mandal failed to block the ball. Chaudhary charged towards the ball and
guided it inside the net to spark field invasion by the capacity crowd.
Earlier, Army Team took
the lead in the 40th minute of the much slower first half. Padam Rai supplied a
well-measured cross from the right only to see his teammate Bishwo Bairag Samal head home
the precious lead. The goal gave Army a psychological edge going into halftime.
The pace accelerated in
the second half but the ground conditions made both the teams struggle in finishing.
"In fact the condition of the ground favoured us as we were a little bit weak in
terms of technique," said Sujan KC, the coach of the victorious side. "We beat
them through power and speed and the condition also prevented them from showing their
skills. Apart from this, guys were outstanding today," add KC.
In the 24th minute of
the second half, Kolkata striker Felix had a close look at the goal but his powerful
rightfooter went for corner after Army captain Channu Ram Chaudhary failed to gather it
safely. But five minutes later they were awarded as Channu Ram’s blunder helped them
to bring the match at level. Channu failed to save an I Dey shot and B Sarkar connected a
powerful shot on the rebound.
Army team took the firm
control on the game in the last 10 minutes but some superb demonstrations under the bar
from S Mandal took the match into the extra time.
Surendra Chaudhary, the
golden goal scorer, was adjudged man of the match. A total of 13 teams competed at the
tournament that ran for 14 days. Mechi Stadium Renovation Committee were the organisers of
the tournament. The winning team bagged Rs 50,000 while the runners up received Rs 25,000.
Devi Prasad Ojha, the Minister for Education and Sports gave away the prizes and
certificates to the winners and runners-up. The sacked president of All Nepal Football
Association (ANFA) Geeta Rana was also present at the closing programme. |
