St Stephen146;s give PFA the blues

The thin line that made the difference for St Stephen's School Football Academy, Chandigarh was that extra combined team effort and passes that not only helped the team create number of chances but also keep the opposition Punjab Football Academy on the back-foot.

The thin line that made the difference for St Stephen8217;s School Football Academy, Chandigarh was that extra combined team effort and passes that not only helped the team create number of chances but also keep the opposition Punjab Football Academy on the back-foot. Because of the superb game displayed by the whole outfit, St Stephen8217;s Academy made a perfect start to its campaign by winning their first match in its first match in the sixth Administrator8217;s Challenge Cup All-India Football Tournament for Under-17 being organised by the Chandigarh Sports Department at the Sector 42 Football Stadium on Tuesday.

Unlike yesterday, there were very little spectators, the only few being the teams that are participating in the championship and players who come for practice at the Sports Complex. Both the team started off brightly and it was the Punjab team who had the first shot at the goal as a swirling long shot by Jagjeet just sailed over the bar.

Missed chances
There was a superb chance to score a goal but this time the team was that of St Stephen8217;s Academy. Rising high to a long pass, Samandram Langba tried his best to head the ball into the net but his effort was thwarted by Nishad Sindham who collected the ball easily. Two minutes later, St Stephen earned a free-kick just outside the penalty area but Punjab player Jagjeet didn8217;t play heed to the referee8217;s instructions to clear the line to which he was shown a green card as a sign of caution. St Stephen players slowly paced up their game and started juggling the ball to and forth. However, one of the stars of the match, Umakanta Singh8217;s goal was disallowed in the 24th minute when his shot hit the bar and then the ball rebounded and touched the goal line but the referee disallowed the goal.

Cool finisher Antil
However, the day belonged to Kuldeep Antil as his effort in the 38th minute put his team on the advantage. The team erupted into joy while slowly frustration seemed to dawn on the Punjab players as they made rough tackle on the opposition team players.

After getting the lead in the first half, the St Stephen8217;s Academy played a much composed game while the Punjab team put a much better performance in the second half and created a number of chances to neutralize the lead The best chance for PFA came in the 76th minute when Jagjeet failed to put the ball into the empty net and shot wide after the St Stephen goalkeeper had stumbled and fall down. In the last ten minutes, PFA got some golden opportunities to save the sagging match as Kulbir Singh volleyed the ball over the crossbar and Manjeet8217;s shot was adeptly caught by Stephen8217;s goalkeeper. St Stephen8217;s Academy earned three corners to PFA8217;s two, one of which changed the course of the match and brought smiles on the St Stephen8217;s team.

Earlier, Chandigarh Football Academy kept a clean sheet while thumping Haryana by 7-0 in the match played in the morning. CFA has scored an astounding 16 goals in just two matches. Gagandeep scored a brilliant hat-trick for CFA while Amandeep, Sehnaj, Sumit Passi and Samuel turned the heat on the Haryana team with their strikes. Tamil Nadu failed to capitalise on a superb brace by SS Dharan as they could not overcome a spirited Rohit Academy Orissa side and lost the match by 3-4. The third match was played between Delhi and Chattisgarh where the Delhi side drubbed Chattisgarh by 3-0. This match also witnessed the first red card of the tournament as Arshulla Khan was sent off from the ground for using abusive language.

Over-age players tally increases to 24
ADDING to the woes, ten more players were found overage in the medical check-up that was carried out at the Government Multispeciality Hospital, Sector 16. These players were debarred from taking part in the on-going tournament. The number of overage players has risen to 24 after 14 players were found to be over the limited age for the participation in the championship. Punjab Football Association and Madhya Pradesh Football Association had three overage players each.