New Delhi: With two semifinalists having been identified already, it was time once again for the 16 remaining teams in pools E to H to attempt earnestly to make it to the knockout stages of the 57th Subroto Cup International Football Tournament.
In their efforts, Saifai Sports College, NFDP (Malaysia), Government, Middle School(Mizoram), St Xavier High School (Gujarat), NCC Directorate (Odisha), Maharana Pratap Sports College (Uttarakhand), Government Model High School (Chandigarh) made their first fruitful forays, beating their rivals, in the second week of the tournament.
The Malaysian outfit, named as National Football Development Programme, played a fantastic game to outwit Government High School from Hissar 5-1 in pool H. The visitors from Kuala Lumpur benefited from the goals of Muhammad Stazwi, Ajmal, N. Akmal and Akiff who scored a brace while the lone goal for Haryana came from the boots of Udit Kumar.
The school from Kolasib (Mizoram) downed Meghalaya’s Lawmei Secondary School 2-1 when Lalnun Sanga, Resane Puia scored for them. Despite pulling one back through Embok Lang, Meghalaya could not do much as they struggled throughout.
In the morning matches held at the Ambedkar Stadium, Maharana Pratap Sports College (Raipur, Dehradun) defeated Sainik School from Imphal in pool G by the slenderest margin when Wajid Ali scored for the winners in the 46th minute, while NCC thrashed IPSC from Goalpara (Assam) 6-0 in pool E.
Samir Kerketta, who opened their account, scored a brace with Bekey Oram, Jagadis Oram, S.K. Kalam and Kusha Jani swelling their kitty. All the while, the Assam’s Sanik school boys were mute spectators with no clue to stop the onslaught.
There was some similarity at NWC, too, when St Xavier boys from Ahmedabad found an easy meat to humble Nirmalamata High School, Daman & Diu, 6-0 in pool E with Elvis John closely missing a hat-trick despite scoring four goals (20, 24, 35, 48 mts) as teammate Aadiya Chinubhai denied him the feat with a goal in the 27th minute. Prince Lalasva added to the losers woes with a goal in the 46th minute to complete the morning demolition.
The Government Model School boys from Chandigarh proved a better side than SAI East’s team from Kolkata as the former won 3-0 in pool G. Taison, Gobind and R. Kami scored for the winners, all goals coming in the first 18 minutes of the match. Later, the SAI team members held a tight defence. With Chandigarh seemingly satisfied with the result achieved, their boys just indulged in wasteful tactics.
In the evening, Saifai Sports College from Ettawah (UP) beat Navodaya from Manipur 3-0. For the winners Manish Choudhary struck twice while Adarsh Sharma added to the tally.