Sport - Football   

Navy, ARC advance

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI DEC. 27. Indian Navy and Assam Regimental Centre (ARC) progressed at the expense of local clubs in the preliminary stage of Durand Cup football tournament at the Ambedkar Stadium here on Friday.

Indian Navy sent New Delhi Heroes packing following a 1-0 verdict before ARC easily beat the reigning Delhi league champion Hindustan Club 2-0.

Indian Navy will take on ARC on Sunday to decide the second qualifier to the main draw. On Saturday, the first of the two qualifying teams will be known when MEG (Bangalore) faces City Club.

On what turned out to be a forgettable day for the local clubs, Navy set the tone by proving superior to New Delhi Heroes. Navy did not press too hard for goals once V.K. Mishra scored in the 20th minute.

Mishra's shot from the right struck the far post before going in. For the better part of the match, New Delhi Heroes was busy ensuring that Navy did not enlarge the victory margin.

Later, unlike Navy, the men from ARC were far more ruthless. They showed little respect to Hindustan's reputation of being a champion side and settled the issue with two first half goals.

Displaying far superior skill and speed, the men from the North-Eastern states were simply too good for Hindustan.

After controlling the midfield at will, ARC surged ahead when Thanglung Muana volleyed in from the top of the box following a corner, taken by Lalret Puia in the 32nd minute.

ARC doubled the lead during the stoppage time of first half with a surprise goal from Gordon. From about 25 yards, Gordon let go an optimistic crack at the goal. Saleem Ansari, the Hindustan custodian, was a bit slow in reacting and by the time he dived to his left, the ball had beaten him.

In the second session, ARC continued to baffle the Hindustan defence but some poor shooting kept the scoreline unchanged.

Hindustan could have reduced the margin through a well-poised Hitender Singh Rawat but this hard-working striker shot wide from close in the 78th minute.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

Billiards & Snooker

• Pankaj sails into final
  
  Chess
  
• Abhijit Gupta, Sai Krishna lead in boys' sections
  
  Cricket
  
• It's been a bitter pill to swallow: Wright
• Langer lasts longer, England struggling
• Tillekaratne in World Cup squad
• Das returns home
• Want innovative ideas in losing? Ask the Indians
• Ntini, Hayward trigger Pakistan collapse
• BCCI critical of Indian sponsors' stand on contracts issue
• Gujarat wary of Balaji
  
  Football
  
• Navy, ARC advance
  
  Golf
  
• Digvijay, Mukesh card day's best
  
  Hockey
  
• U.P. puts up a spirited display
  
  Tennis
  
• Praveen pockets a double
  
  Table Tennis
  
• Sangeetha-Aparna duo in final
  
  Korfball
  
• U.P. in last four
  
  

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu