Houghton tastes success

Later in the title clash of last evening, Michael Chopra missed from the spot as Vancouver Whitecaps FC took the Nations Cup defeating Cardiff City FC, Wales, in a penalty shootout after both teams were locked goalless after 120 minutes.

India started brightly in the third-place playoff and had a lot of the ball in the initial stages but could not create any chances.

Pradeep broke the deadlock just before the half-hour Mark when he headed in a Renedy Singh corner.

But India went down to 10 men five minutes before half-time when forward Sushil Kumar Singh was sent off after he missed an overhed kick and hit Chinese defender Zhou Yun on the head with his left foot.

The numerical advantage encouraged the Chinese to mount more raids into the Indian territory.

Houghton makes changes to deal with the problem and brought in skipper S Venkatesh and Steven Dias for Bibiano Fernandes and Renedy Singh, who led the team in the first 45 minutes.

In the 65th minute, Micky Fernandes came in for Samir Naik and a minute later, India got the crucial second goal in a counter-attack.

Steven Dias’ shot was blocked in front of the Chinese goal but Manjit was on hand to tap the ball in and double India’s lead.

The Chinese attacks now became more desperate but the Indian defence, ably marshalled by keeper Sandip Nandy held firm. However, the Chinese pulled one back when Tang Jiashu scored from a corner in the 76th minute.