The Hindu : Sport / Football : Andhra beats Pondicherry; finishes third

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 07, 2006

Sport

Sport - Football

Andhra beats Pondicherry; finishes third

TIRUR: Andhra demolished Pondicherry 5-0 on Saturday in the South Zone (under-21) championship to finish third in the four-team competition.

Sathish Kumar (two), V. Srinivas Rao, Mohammed Moazzam and D. Shekar were the scorers.

If there was a man of the match award, it would have gone to Srinivas, who looked quite promising. He opened the scoring in the 40th minute, when he struck from the right edge of the box off an excellent short pass from Sathish.

If Andhra's lead was just one goal at the breather, that was because it wasted too many opportunities. It made up for those lapses in the second half, though.

Andhra went 2-0 in the 63rd minute when a grounder by Sathish, off a corner kick taken by Srinivas, found the net after caressing at least a couple of Pondicherry legs. It was the first of four goals Andhra scored inside six minutes.

Moazzam made it 3-0 in the 66th minute, making no mistake from close in, after being given an excellent square pass by Srinivas, who had set up that goal beautifully, with a fine move down the right.

In the 67th minute, Shekar slotted in a rebound off his own header, following a corner kick by Moazzam. Two mintues later, Sathish scored the last goal, chipping the ball nicely in above the goalkeeper, after receiving a neat pass from Srinivas.

On Sunday night, Kerala takes on Karnataka in what is virtually the final of this round-robin tournament. The winner will qualify for the Nationals, but Kerala, which has a better goal difference, needs only a draw. — Principal Correspondent

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