New Delhi, October 9: Army Boys Coy, Bengaluru, defeated the schoolboys from Goa 4-1 while the Haryana boys scored a facile 1-0 over E Elias High School from Meghalaya to enter the semi-finals of the U-17 Junior Boys in the 57th Subroto Cup International Football Tournament at the Dr. Ambedkar Stadium here today.
In the two quarter-finals, the Army Boys showed a lot of verve throughout the match and, understandably, it reflected in the scoreline as compared to the other match between Haryana and Meghalaya.
It was perhaps the intention of Haryana to take the safe route of guarding their citadel well before looking for the opportunity to score the winner. And that is precisely what happened as their most reliable striker Utkarsh once again came to their aid to put their side in the semifinals.
Utkarsh, making most of a defense lapse in the 65th minute, cut past two defenders to fire the lone goal which, in the ultimate analysis, turned out to be the winner.
On the other hand, Army Boys entered the field with determination and it was evident in the approach to the game against Goan boys. Even otherwise, the Goan side was troubled so much that it preferred to rather block their opponents’ passage.
Just four minutes into the match, TH Premjit Singh fired the first salvo and six minutes later NG Imarson Meitei scored to consolidate their position. The Army Boys seemed well on course to go into the break with a comfortable 2-0 lead but Aaron Alvares pulled one back just two minutes before half-time to the astonishment of the Bengaluru team.
Nevertheless, the cushion of one goal lead must have given sufficient strength to Army Boys that they played very cautious and made sporadic raids. There was a long dull period and it was broken as the match was entering the last five minutes.
In the 67th minute, Samir Tamang put Army Boys 3-1 ahead and in the last minute Dip Majumdar, who was made ineffective by heavy marking throughout, found the gap to slot in the fourth.
Mouth watering Final
Tomorrow, the Girls Senior Secondary School from Bhiwani will take on Sports School from Kohima in the Under-17 Junior Girls final at the Dr. Ambedkar Stadium.
The final will, undoubtedly, be a mouth-watering affair as both the Haryana and Nagaland girls have shown their prowess, besides scoring heavily throughout so far. The teams have in their ranks very good strikers besides a solid defense line that will make the match not only evenly contested but will be a treat to the spectators.
To pep their game and lend vocal support, the guest of honour of the evening,Thangavelu Mariappan, the gold medal winner in high jump at the Rio Paralympics, will be in presence with a host of Air Force officials, which will include chief guest Air Marshal M.K. Malik, who is also the vice-chairman of the SubrotoMukerjee Sports Education Society.
The Air Marshall will give away the prizes to the winners.
