Unnerved Subba’s fifth penalty kick gives title to Easterners

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Aug. 4: Defender Purna Subba held his nerve to strike home the decider fifth spot kick which fetched the Eastern Region the 25th National Football Championship by downing Tribhuwan Club 4-3 in the penalty shootout in the final played today.

Having played 1-1 draw for the whole of regular and golden goal period, both teams were forced for the tiebreaker in which Eastern Region team emerged the champions. Subba who was the fifth penalty taker did not lose his nerve and hammered the ball home. The both teams were locked at 3-3 draw after the completion four penalty shots taken by each team.

Army converted the first, the second and the fourth penalty kicks while the third and fifth were squandered. For Easterners, first, second, third and fifth were converted while fourth was wasted. Army’s Sainla Maharjan’s fourth penalty shot was blocked by keeper Ritesh Thapa while Banaya Chaudhary’s shot was rebounded from the cross bar.

Easterners’ culprit was none other than their own keeper, Suraj Khaling who pushed the ball out of far side. But Limbu was there for them to save the day as he coolly struck the ball home for the jubilation of a large number of Easterners fans.

Barring some period of golden goal period, both the finalists were locked into a drab battle that was bereft of fireworks from the both sides during regular time.

As a result, the Easterners who reached the final as favourite with their nice performance had to toil today. Moreover, the physically superior Army team with good stamina did not allow rivals to make easy inroads.

They effectively marked the Easterners’ hero Hari Thakuri and other striker Surendra Tamang. However, the skilled Easterners had some edge over the Army as Thakuri made some ripples inside Army’s citadel. After the initial failures,

Thakuri made one superb attempt to dodge the rival defenders. His sharp flick went directly on to the hand of one of Army Defenders and the resultant spot kick, awarded by referee Gyani Raja Shrestha, was easily converted by Tamang in the 33rd minute.

But Easterners jubilation did not last long. In a counter attack, Bishwa Bairag Samal grabbed a long pass right inside the penalty area of rivals and accurately lobbed the ball past wrong-footed Easterners’ custodian Ritesh Thapa.

During the second half, Army seemed to have regrouped and made many attempts to take lead but the poor finishes from striker Sainla Maharjan and others led them down.

Police win third place: The return of Hari Khadka into the team bolstered the Mahendra Police Club to win consolation third place against Central Region. Dev Narayan Chaudhary struck twice and Anil Adhikary scored once to inflict the Central 3-1 defeat. For Central, Jeevesh Pandey was the lone scorer.

Meanwhile after the ceremony, Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Gopal Man Shrestha distributed prizes and certificate to winners, runners-up, third place third and fourth place holders along with referees, judges and other people.

The Central Region was awarde the fair-play trophy while booter of Eastern Region Parbesh Katuwal was adjudged the best player of the tournament.