ANFA " A" lift Prince Cup

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, July 1: The All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) groomed boys performed the flair and touch of footballing techniques while clashing for the Prince Cup Championship organised ANFA to mark the 30th Auspicious Birthday of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Deependra Bir Bikram Shah Dev.

Prince Paras Bikram Shah gave way the medals trophy and certificates to the winners, runners-up, referees, coaches and other officials. Little Angels’ School, one eight of the weeklong tournament participated by six Kathmandu Valley schools and two ANFA teams, were awareded the fair-play trophy by Prince Paras.

ANFA President Ganesh Thapa addressing the participants of the final tournament said that the present two ANFA teams showed the ANFA’s labour for the development of football in the country. The ANFA is currently running three football academies in the different part of the country. He also extended his best wishes for the ANFA boys and thanked those who made the tournament a success.

Though the title was won by ANFA "A", but the final bout among the boys of ANFA Academy was, many in the Dashrath Stadium believed a revisit of the Euro 2000 semifinal between Italy and Netherlands. In that match, the Dutch lost the match in the penalty-shootout, despite dominating the battle throughout.

Ditto for today’s title clash wherein the dominators of the match, ANFA B were downed by ANFA A 4-3 in the penalty-shootout after being locked 0-0 during the 90 minutes regular and 30 minute of golden goal period.

In a rain soaked muddy pitch which troubled both the teams at many occasions, the ANFA B boys, after taming their rivals in the both halves, missed many close chances the second half and extra time as forwards Gajendra Rana failed to convert easy scoring opportunities. His close range headers just agonisingly flew over the cross bar and his side-footed scoring chances were let down by the sticky condition of goalmouth.

Despite having cream of young footballers, the A team could not muster the momentum and failed to effectively penetrate the rivals whereas B showed some promise the gain the lead in the second half but lack of clear finishes.

The B team were finally faced the ignominy of defeat at the hands of A in the penalty shoot-out. The agility of ANFA A keeper Bikash Malla rescued his team as he saved two consecutive spot kicks taken by Prakash Shrestha and Ramesh Adhikari.

From the ANFA A side, except for Shekhar Thapa whose shot went wide, Som Thapa, Manil Mohara, Lok Bandhu Gurung and Ekajan Tuladhar did not fail to hit home while ANFA B’s Prasant Giri, Sunil Lama and Subash Rai did proud to his Yugoslav Coach by converting the spot kick.