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Scintillating show by the Indian girls

Special Correspondent

P. Mythili.

CHENNAI: India girls put up a good show in the just concluded Asian Football Confederation south central under-14 festival held in Colombo to emerge the best team among the five that took part in this tourney.

The stress, at this level of competition, was on creating enthusiasm in the sport and to expose them to ‘fair play’. Winning or losing a match to that extent was academic.

At the end of the festival the focus was on which team garnered the maximum number of green cards to decide the positions on league table.

India tops table

With 21 green cards India topped the table, followed by Jordan, Iran, Sri Lanka and Bhutan in that order.

For the record India won all but one of its eight matches.

It beat Bhutan 9-0, Iran 3-1, Bhutan 15-0, Sri Lanka 8-0, lost to Jordan 0-1, drew with Iran 0-0, bt Jordan 8-3, bt Sri Lanka 6-0.

P. Mythili was the sole representative from Tamil Nadu in the Indian side, which was otherwise dominated by players from Manipur and Bengal.

A student of the Rajendran MHSS, Vadugapatti in Erode, Mythili was selected from a bunch of 48 players who had come to the coaching camp held in Bhopal prior to the trip.

Thrilled

Having helped Tamil Nadu earlier in winning both the Under-13 and Under-14 national championships, the girl was thrilled to be part of the Indian team.

“I scored 5 goals,” said Mythili, who had played all the matches in a striker’s role.

Coached by C. Rajesh Kanna from the beginning, Mythili is looking forward to be part of the Indian side in the future, maybe the U-16 team.

Learning curve

“The Colombo trip was a good learning exercise, particularly to know all about fair play.

“I will work hard to improve further,” added the confident girl, soon after reaching Chennai from New Delhi on her way home.

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