MPC thrash Kath Club for final showdown with MMC

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Feb. 20: The Mahendra Police Club shut out Kathmandu Club with three half-time goals to nil to storm into the final of the King’s Cup Soccer Tournament. The police players will take on the Manang Marshyangdi Club in tomorrow’s final to be played at the Dashrath Stadium.

The Kathmandu Club that played a semifinal of senior level soccer tournaments of any kind for the second time held the superior policemen for a goal-less draw till the first half. But after the breather, the Kathmandu players could not equal the stamina and skilled of the cohesive rivals and conceded three goals.

Borrowed most of its players from the capital’s another club—the Rani Pokhari Corner Team(RCT)— for the current tournament as the RCT was not participating, the Kathmandu Club missed many scoring opportunities at the initial state which could have proved beneficial against a team like the MPC, studded with eight Nepalese internationals.

The Kathmandu club was let down by the absence of striker Raj Kumar Shrestha. He was rested due to his hamstring injury. The absence of Shrestha was felt doubly as another striker Raj Kumar Ghising could not live up to the expectation in today’s encounter missing some close calls.

In the meantime, the fans of the Kathmandu Club must want to give applauses for their captain Narayan Manadhar who produced a gritty all round performance today. Although the Man of the Match award that carried a Samsung wristwatch went to MPC’s Deepak Poudel, but the real hero in today’s game was Manandhar, the side defender who was all over the field today. The stocky player defended and supplied the passes well, not to mention his frequent overlapping into the rivals’ citadel. But the defeat, which is mostly due to the lack of strong defence and cohesive midfield performance, denied him the prize.

Apart from Manandhar, the Kathmandu keeper was also in his best form today as he saved four very sure looking goals. His agility under the bar prevented MPC striker Hari Khadka as many as three easy opportunities for scoring. Sadly for Khadka, one of the contenders for the Man of the Tournament title that has a motorbike as the prize, he could not score a single goal in today’s match. Khadka had scored a triple hat-trick against Naxal Yuva Mandal in the quarterfinal two days back.

With the start of second half, MPC pulled a lead in the 46th minute through the unlikeliest player to score. Mid-fielder Deependra Poudel latched on to a Narottam Gautam pass for the first goal of the match and also of his team. Dev Narayan Chaudhary found the net for the team’s second goal in the 61st minute. Striker Ramesh Budathoki made it 3-0 in the 72nd minute on Khadka pass.

At today’s match, referee Gayni Raja Shrestha booked Deepak Poudel and Aita Singh Tamang of the Kathmandu Club. A spectator named Anil Singh of Dharan received lucky draw prize on gate tickets. The prize included an Adidas ball, T-shirt and a bag and was handed over to Singh by a former Nepalese football captain, Raju Kaji Shakya.

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