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Three Cheers To Three Stars
Home team wins the hearts and minds but loses in the crucial semifinal even as ANFA succeeds in hosting a major international tournament
By A CORRESPONDENT
Although the home team –Three Stars Club (TSC) – did not win the tournament despite putting up brilliant performance, the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) has proved its capability by successfully hosting a major international tournament.
Displaying a spectacular and unprecedented performance, the Three Stars Club (TSC) of Nepal narrowly missed from securing a berth in the finals of the ongoing AFC President’s Cup. In a nail-biting ending, TSC lost to Dordoi Dynamo of Kyrgyzstan 4-3 in a tie-breaker at the second semifinal of the tournament held at Dasarath Stadium on May 12.
The two teams were not able to score a single goal in the regulation time as well as in the extra time leading to the tie-breaker, which went the Kyrgyz way. In a packed stadium, the TSC won the hearts of Nepalese audience by displaying a spirited performance against the hot favorites.
In the finals that saw the two Central Asian Republics fighting for the title, the Regar Tadaz club of Tajikistan defeated Dordoi Dynamo of Kyrgyzstan 3-0 to bag the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President’s Cup on May 14. The winning team bagged cash prize of US$ 50,000 and the runner-up bagged US$ 25,000. Three Star Club of Nepal won the Fair Play Award. After this tournament, the national team skipper and goalkeeper of Nepalese football team as well as the TSC Upendra Man Singh who had displayed remarkable performance on the semifinal announced his retirement from international football.
Impressed by the ANFA’s superb hosting of the tournament, the visiting president of AFC Mohammad bin Hamam announced second package of “Goal Project” for Nepal. Inaugurating the Chyasal Technical Center, which was constructed along with similar football technical centers in Butwal and Dharan with the help of first Goal Project, Hamam said that the AFC would award the second project to Nepal because of its progress in football.
AFC also announced that it would increase the annual fund it had been providing to the ANFA from US$ 72,000 to US$ 1,20,000.
In the recently concluded AFC, eight national league winning clubs from eight Asian countries had taken part including TSC, clubs from two central Asian republics, Blue Star from Sri Lanka, Transport United from Bhutan, Hello United from Cambodia, Tai Power Company from Taiwan and Water and Power Development Association (WAPDA) from Pakistan. TSC had defeated Tai Power Company and leveled a draw with Regar Tadaz and Bhutanese club during the initial league phase of the tournament.
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