Chandigarh lads win Subroto Cup

Chandigarh, October 23

Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 37, represented by Chandigarh Football Academy (CFA), have won the 62nd Subroto Cup Junior (U 17) Boys Inter-School International Football Tournament for the first time in the history of the tournament.

The local lads defeated Amenity Public School, Rudrapur (Uttarakhand), 5-3 in a tie-breaker finish at Dr BR Ambedkar Stadium. The first half saw both teams fighting for possession with Chandigarh looking to play long balls into the opposition half, while Amenity played the ball from the back trying to create space between the defence. Chances were at premium for both teams and the best one fell for Chandigarh.

Amenity goalkeeper, Kunal spilled the ball inside the six yard box but Thongbam Lalchenba could not put the finishing touches. Chandigarh did put the ball in the net during the closing stages of the half, but it was ruled out for offside.

After the lemon-break, Amenity could have taken the lead with Boinao just having to beat the goalkeeper. But his attempt went wide off the goal post.

At the other end, Chandigarh also missed a chance with Bobby Singh misguiding a free header of a corner kick. The rest of the half was tightly contested and both teams could not find the winning goal sending the match into extra time. Chandigarh squandered a golden opportunity in the initial minutes of extra time with Bobby missing a sitter with the goal free in front of him. Both teams could not create any clear cut chances as the match moved into penalties. Both teams converted their first two kicks but Yumnam missed the third kick for Amenity before Chandigarh converted their third kick. Bobby converted the decisive kick for Chandigarh to start the celebrations for the winners.

A total of 38 teams participated in the Junior Boys (U 17) category of this edition’s Subroto Cup, including teams from Bangladesh and Nepal.

Sandeep declared best coach, Rohit best goalkeeper

Chandigarh’s Rohit was awarded the Safe Hand Trophy for the best goalkeeper and a cheque for Rs 25,000. The Best Coach cheque for Rs 25,000 was handed to Chandigarh’s coach Sandeep Singh. Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, Chief of Air Staff, along with Anju Bobby George, awarded the winners. The winners got a cheque for Rs 3.5 lakh.

This CFA batch was inducted by Sports Department coaches Gurpreet Bedi and Sandeep Singh and had been training at the academy since then.