The Hindu : Sport / Football : Dawngzela is NCC’s hero

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 17, 2007
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Sport - Football

Dawngzela is NCC’s hero

Principal Correspondent

— Photo: Sadeep Saxena

CHAMPIONS: The NCC, Aizawl team which won the Subroto Cup football tournament with chief guest Air Chief Marshal F.H. Major.

NEW DELHI: A curling free-kick from top of the box by M.S. Dawngzela silenced an over-confident Bengal boys as the National Cadet Corps (NCC), Aizawl, claimed the Subroto Cup under-17 title with a solitary goal triumph at the Ambedkar Stadium here on Tuesday.

In an evenly-balanced match, Sagarbhanga High School, Durgapur, had itself to blame for making a hash of the situation after it had had made most of the goal-bound moves. The Bengal school came close to scoring thrice but the Mizo goalkeeper V. Lalkhawngaiha foiled all the attempts.

Costly protest

Bengal’s undoing was the 47th minute free-kick following a foul committed by defender Subhankar Dey. The cadets had moved up from the left flank through Lalchhanpuia in a regulation play.

Dey messed up while attempting to head out Lalchhanpuia’s aerial shot and fell on the pitch with the ball under him. As the referee signalled free-kick for handling the ball, Dey showed unnecessary dissent and was shown a yellow card.

Dawngzela fired the ball, which nicely curved around the ‘wall’ and headed towards the net.

That Bengal’s Ram Malik gave a slight deflection to the ball hardly mattered as the goalkeeper Sudipta Banerjee was blinded by his own defender.

That goal infused more life into the match. Bengal raised the tempo when Dipendu Dorai shot a powerful grounder from the top of the box but Lalkhawngaiha made an excellent save to thwart the 57th minute attempt.

Goal disallowed

Five minutes later, the Aizawl team seemed to have almost sealed the match when James Lalrammuana headed in but the referee signalled an off-side.

As time wore out, Bengal showed urgency in trying to find an equaliser but three more attempts were nullified by the Mizo defenders.

In the 64th minute, Prasenjit Das sent the ball in the middle from the right flank, but Sankar Paul missed what could have been a good header. Biswadeep Das’s shot from the left corner of the box was well blocked by the NCC defenders.

Missed chance

Das got yet another chance two minutes later but he failed to connect the loose ball he had chanced upon from the melee.

The Aizawl team received the Rs. 1 lakh prize while Sagarbhanga School settled for runner-up cheque for Rs. 50,000.

Bengal’s Ram Malik was adjudged the ‘Most Promising Junior Player’ while Mizoram’s Lalhlimpuia collected the ‘Best Player of the tournament’ award. Goa’s Rosary Higher Secondary School won the ‘Fair Play’ trophy.

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