The Hindu : Sport / Football : Tamil Nadu girls win maiden title

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Thursday, Nov 20, 2008
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Tamil Nadu girls win maiden title

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu under-19 girls won the junior national football title for the first time when they beat Orissa 2-1 in the final in Gurgaon on Wednesday. Two years ago in Pondicherry Tamil Nadu reached the final.

Only the other day in the quarterfinal league had Orissa inflicted a 3-0 defeat on Tamil Nadu but the whole scenario changed in the title round.

According to information provided by Renukalakshmi, the AIFF women’s coordinator, Chiranciyal gave Tamil Nadu the lead in the 15th minute and then in the second minute of second half, skipper Kalpana consolidated the position.

Orissa scored midway through but Tamil Nadu ensured there was no further let up.

“It has given us new hope,” said Tamil Nadu Football Association (TFA) President Cletus Babu. He said this was the result of good preparation of the team, thanks to the SDAT academy.

“We will in the future too select teams early and give enough time for training,” he added.

Mr. Cletus said the Association had plans to bid for the next edition of the Santosh Trophy (to be held sometime in May 2009) as part of the 75th year celebration of the TFA.

“We have thought of three centres to conduct it — the preliminary rounds in Coimbatore and Madurai and the final phase in Chennai. This will help in giving a boost to the sport in the state,” he added.

Former TFA President C.R. Visswanathan said: “The girls have made us all proud. This is the first time in the 75 years of TFA that a national title has come to the state. It is a great moment and with Tamil Nadu being one of the centres for the AFC Vision project, this augurs well,” he said.

The TFA Secretary Sadatcharam said that each member of the team, which had quite a few players from SDAT Dindigul, would be getting about Rs. 6,000 from SDAT as part of the Government scheme.

Former TFA Secretary and a veteran official, T.R. Govindarajan said: “The win itself was excellent. In addition, considering that women’s football in Tamil Nadu was organised on a serious note only about 15 years ago, it is truly commendable that the girls could beat powerful teams like Manipur and Orissa.”

The only other occasion when the State won a National title was in 1984 in Tiruchi when the sub junior boys were declared joint winners with Bengal.

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