Indian u-23 team coached by Sukhwinder Singh and led by Sushil Kumar Singh avenged last year's national team defeat in the finals to Maldives by winning SAFF cup for a record 5th time against the same opponents on penalties.
Placed in group A our boys started unconvincingly with a 1-0 win over minnows Afghanistan thanks to a late strike by Pune FC striker Jeje Lalpekhlua. A win with the same margin over Nepal in the 2nd group encounter saw Indian colts cruise into the semifinal with one game in hand.Although fortune was on Indian side which helped them score the winner in the 18th minute as Khangebam Jeevan Singh headed the ball in the net after Bikash Malla the long serving Nepalese keeper fumbled to grip the ball which was rebounded after hitting the crossbar from a 25 yard free kick taken by Indian captain Sushil Kumar Singh. Nepal applied quite a lot of pressure but indian defence marshalled by the young goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya easily saw them off.
In the last group match Maldives handed India a 2-0 defeat to top group A and book a place for themselves in the semi final.60 minutes into the match Balwant was given the marching orders after a second yellow card for a dive inside Maldives penalty area. Ahmed Thoriq scored for Maldives in the 16th minute and their lead was doubled by Ibrahim Fazeel in the 84th minute.
Thanks to a long ranger by the India skipper Sushil Kumar India scored the only goal of their semi-final against the hosts Bangladesh in the 62nd minute. Bangladesh's supporters turned out to be sore losers after they took to throwing bottles at the India team at the end to the match.
India was to take on Maldives in the final who were filled with confidence after a one sided semi final match against Sri Lanka which the former won 5-1. Maldives were pipped as the favourites owing to their victory over India already in the group stage and the thrashing which they gave to the Lankans in the semis. India poor striking record in the tournament was a big hindrance for them and adding salt to the wounds of India was the unavailability to few of their key players due to injury.
In the finale Indian side dominated from the start with Maldives hardly getting any decent shot at the goal. Both the teams failed to capitalize on the chances which they got to seal the championship in the 2nd ET with both the team's skippers failing respectively.
120 minutes without troubling the scorers meant it was the time for the dreaded penalties.
For India it was again their goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya who came to their rescue with a splendid performance by saving 2 of the 4 shots by the Maldives players where as one shot was missed. For India Jeevan, Denzil and Subodh converted their respective spot kicks while Nirmal fired wide giving India a victory by 3-1 on penalties and helping them to lift the SAFF cup'09 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka.
Arindam Bhattacharya the Churchill Brothers goalkeeper and best I-League goalkeeper award winner won the The Most Valuable Player of the tounament.
No comments:
Post a Comment