Malaysia, Chandigarh, Odisha and Mizoram enter Subroto Under-14 quarterfinals

Until the last match in pool F, between Mizoram’s Government Middle School (Kolasib) and Navodaya School (Manipur), confusion prevailed but a clear 5-0 win for the Mizoram outfit helped it grab the last quarterfinal spot in the Sub-Junior Boys (U-14) in the ongoing 57th Subroto Cup International Football Tournament here today....

Earlier, Government Model School from Chandigarh, NCC Directorate from Odisha and the boys from Malaysia, who are competing as a team and christened as National Football Development Programme (NFDP) topped their respective groups to enter the quarterfinals. The first quarterfinal will be played between Chandigarh and Mizoram while in the second, NCC will take on the Malaysian squad. The teams from Chandigarh, Odisha and Malaysia seemed had not only kept a clean slate in the league stage but also looked like the one who possessed potent weapons in their arsenals with exemplary game plans. L. Sanga once again did the star turn for the Mizoram School with a hat-trick, though it was Zotham Maiwa who began the rout against Navodaya with a goal in the second minute. Later, Abraham completed the task for the winners. In the afternoon match between Meghalaya’s Lawmei Secondary School and Saifai Sports College (Ettawah), the teams drew goalless. Even otherwise, it was a formality pool engagement with its result having no bearing on anybody. The triumph each one of them achieved today—Chandigarh beat Gujarat 7-0, NCC downed Uttrakhand 4-1 and Malaysia, who got a walkover from Army School that failed to make an appearance—was a foregone conclusion and was a part of league engagements. Chandigarh’s government school boys upped the ante and kept their strikers busy from the ninth minute as Karan opened the account for them. Then Balraj (2), Taison, Gobind and Malem joined the mayhem before Karan shutting the shop on their St Xavier High School from Ahmedabad without any response during the entire duration of the match. NCC, on the other hand, began their routine onslaught with a fifth minute goal from Sameer Karketta—he scored a brace—and continued with Bekey Oram and S.K. Kalam joining to swell their total. Towards the closing stages of the game, Maharana Pratap Sports College boys reduced the margin when Lalit Singh Rawat struck in the 50th minute. The Dehradun boys, who had begun with a 1-0 win three days ago, were a disappointment this season. For the Sports Authority of India (East) boys from Kolkata, who beat Nirmalamata High School from Daman & Diu 13-0, it must have been a frustrating experience to exit the way they did. Of the three matches in their pool A, they ended only second best to Chandigarh’s Government Model Shool, with two wins. Their 0-3 loss against Chandigarh in their opening match on Wednesday really cost them dear. Though Shashikant, who scored three times, opened in the second minute Sanjay Soren hogged the limelight with four goals as he was helped in team’s cause by Pratham Lama, Jalhang Subba (2), Kajol Ghosh, Kabir Lama. As if this was not enough, Daman’s Hardi Jaysukla added to their rival’s tally with a self-goal in the 40th minute. With NCC having already qualified from pool G, the match between two Sainik Schools from Manipur and Assam which ended in a 1-1 draw was inconsequential for the two teams. Sridarth for Manipur and Dorjee Wangchu for the IPSC scored. In another insignificant pool D match, GHS Mayyar from Hissar defeated Army Public School, Delhi 3-0, with Amir Kumar (2) and Sahil contributing. [KH_RELATED_NEWS title="Related News"][/KH_RELATED_NEWS]