Another low for Delhi

Delhi began their journey to Chennai last week high on hope to improve upon their quarter-final exits from the Santosh Trophy year after year.

Delhi began their journey to Chennai last week high on hope to improve upon their quarter-final exits from the Santosh Trophy year after year. They also looked good to crack the code with all big players available for selection including Avdesh Pal,Vinay Singh and Sunil Chhetri. As the last two finally made the cut and the team went on to create a new,but ignominious,record of bowing out of the tournaments first round in a decade with a 2-1 loss to Assam on Tuesday,they seemed to have been let down by the one who preferred to miss the Chennai-bound trainVinay Singh.

This was the best football Delhi have played in years. We dominated both matches all through; the only short-coming was the goalkeeper. With Vinay (Singh),we certainly would have had a better chance, said skipper Sunil Chhetri,who missed the match against Assam after injuring his right ankle against Railways.

Chhetri,incidentally,had returned to the National Championships after three years.

Pushpender Kundu,Delhis most experienced player and former captain,admits this was one of the best teams he was part of during his nine-year-long tenure,but Vinay Singh would have made it the best.

The scoreboard doesnt reflect the quality of football we played here. I was proud to be a part of such an energetic team, Kundu said,adding,I went to the Nehru Stadium to collect a few certificates and the people,who had seen our first game against Railways,were surprised to hear that we lost to Assam. We missed the experience of Vinay (Singh),but this happens,even to the best of teams. Were going back early this year,but there are no regrets.

Coach Surinder Kumars way of explaining his teams performance was even more emphatic,but the chord was the same. You have to look beyond the results and had we,Railways and Assam been placed in three different groups,all of us had qualified. You had to be here to judge the performance. Today,Rampal was completely foxed by the opponents. He just couldnt collect a simple aerial ball with no opponent forwards around. And that goal was demoralising, Kumar told Sportline from Chennai.

There were another couple of factors that the coach was left brooding upon. Today we couldnt play our first goalkeeper Pronoy Roy due to fever and missed a mature striker. We couldnt have risked Chhetri who was not fully fit. Considering the time we got to prepare I would judge this as the best we could have possibly done. We spent the least time on set-pieces while preparing and they went awry today. Apart from Rampals mistake that is also one of the reasons we lost today.

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Meanwhile Vinay Singh,who didnt join the Delhi team,might face disciplinary action from the state body. We will take action against Vinay (Singh) after getting a report from our team officials. We are waiting for them to return, DSA secretary NK Bhatia said.

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