Garhwal’s dream run ends,despite the heroics

It was never going to be easy for the Heroes after JCT went ahead 16 minutes into first half. The calculation was simple,JCT needed a draw to advance ,while Heroes had to win. But when Ibrahim struck from outside the box — Heroes keeper Pradeep Kumar misjudged the flight of the ball — it was the Heroes team,who were looking down the barrel.

Heroes struck back in the second half to level the score through a 59 th minute strike by Kamal Rawat. With JCT strikers,Ibrahim and Bidami Daniel failing to convert chances by a dozen,optimism was running high on the Heroes once again,and semi-final spot was only a strike away. But Kumar held the forte for the Punjab team as he saved a succession on strikes to save the blushes for his side.

“I was trying to explain them in the practice sessions as well that we will never get a bigger opportunity than this. There heads were down in half time but I told them to fight back. With (Kamal) Rawat’s goal things looked up,they created a lot of chances but I would give credit to the Phagwara goalie who also saved a lot of shots. Ultimately,the way they played,I couldn’t have asked for more,” said Garhwal Heroes coach Ravinder Rana,talking to Sportline.

Despite advancing,Phagwara coach was unhappy with the players for taking their opponents lightly.

“Well,the match wasn’t played the way it should have been. It happens that when you play a weaker team,you start taking wins for granted. We missed few chances but we did well in the second half,” said JCT Phagwara coach Parminder Singh after the match.

Nonetheless the Delhi side enjoyed themselves in the tournament. They had stunned I-League giants Sporting Club de Goa in their first match. This after they got a lucky break after Dempo SC pulled out of the tournament. They saw off AOC Secunderabad in the play-off match to make the cut for the round robin format.