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Churchill, Railmen set up quarterfinal clash

New Delhi, Wed, 31 Oct 2007 Mukesh Thapliyal

Newstrack India

Oct 31: Churchill captain Odafe Onyeka Okolic scored a quartet for his team to drub Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and set up a quarterfinal date with the Central Railway team, who got the better off Tata Football Academy (TFA) 4-1 in the tie-breaker in their respective pre-quarterfinals matches of the 120 th Osian’s Durand cup played at the Ambedkar stadium here on Tuesday.

In the first match of the last 16 stage, Churchill Brothers of Goa was on rampage right from the word go, as in the very 2nd minute Odafe, the hero of the match, unleashed a powerful shot from top of the circle, which was beautifully saved by goalkeeper Gumpe Rime. Five minutes later Odafe repeated his act but once again Rime came to the fore to thwart his attempt.

But it was a matter of time for the Churchill players, as Odafe put his team ahead in the 15th minute scoring a fine goal on the turn with his left foot, after receiving a cross from Reisangam Vashum.

The match was totally in the grip of Churchill players as the ball was largely confined to their players and in the rival arena during the first half. The action was basically restricted between two players, as Odafe was trying hard to find a goal and rival custodian was denying him everytime.

Had Gumpe Rime did not excel under the bars and some luck wouldn’t have favoured HAL team the match would surely have been ended with a 10-0 scoreline. Odafe was bit unlucky yesterday, as his stunning shots came off the post on nearly three occasions.

Churchill Brothers were leading with only one goal at the stroke of lemon- break.

On resumption, Churchill exerted pressure on the rival citadel with Odafe, once again missed some luck, finding the post into the third minute of the second-half. Ten minutes later substitute Sumit Thapa brought Odafe down in the penalty area resulting a spot-kick. Odafe made no mistake in converting the spot kick making it 2-0.

Down with two goals HAL players showed some resilience and started to attack and their efforts finally paid off in the 66th minute, when Bimal Minz scored the lone consolation goal for his team, he charged down from the right side drawing the Churchill goalkeeper Vinay Singh from the post and nicely placed it into the net.

It seems as if HAL players will stage a comeback into the match but Odafe dashed all the hopes of any recovery as he struck twice more in the 79 th and 86 th minute to seal the fate of the opponents. The last goal was the goal of the day with Odafe producing a fine swerving volley from right top corner of the box, after receiving a long ball, beating custodian Gumpe Rime all ends up.

In the other pre-quarterfinal, it was experience that prevailed over youth. The match had some fine moments under the lights. The Tata Football Academy and Central Railways players displayed attacking football with the action mostly restricted in the middle of the ground.

Both the teams were equally matched with neither of the teams dominating the proceedings, as one had experience so as the other had the rush of youth. Central Railways surged ahead in the 27th minute through unmarked Soccer Velho who scored on a rebound, after custodian saved a long-range shot of Safique.

Goutam Kujur restored parity for the TFA off to a fine cross from Muralidharan. The match headed towards extra time with no further conversions in the match. The extra time saw some sparkling moves from both the teams without any goals being scored leading it to tie-break.

In the tie-breaker Railway’s coach did the trick and substituted his goalkeeper Raghuvir with Kunal Sawant. The dice thrown by the coach did the work for him as Kunal saved the very first penalty diving to his left putting the pressure on the young and inexperienced opponents.

In the penalty shoot out Kasif Jamal, Arun Ek, Nasir Jamal and Soccer Velho found the target for Railways, while only S Naveen Kumar scored for TFA resulting a 4-1 win for the Central Railways team, which now meets Churchill Brothers on November 3.


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