The Hindu : Sport / Football : Hat-trick by Baba Tunde

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Wednesday, Mar 14, 2007
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Hat-trick by Baba Tunde

Principal Correspondent

KOCHI: Viva Kerala rode on a Baba Tunde's hat-trick to crush Army XI 6-1 in the ONGC 2nd Division NFL match at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium here on Tuesday.

The win brought Viva closer to clinching a place in the final phase. At the end of the third round the home side is at the top with seven points from three matches. Tunde, the tournament's highest scorer with six goals, opened scoring in the fifth minute when he eluded the army's off-side trap and lobbed the ball over the on-rushing goalkeeper.

The goal upset the Army team's gameplan and the team which normally thrives on chocking its opponents with its defensive game was forced to attack. The Army men piled on pressure but its defence appeared shaky and was vulnerable to counter-attacks. A breakaway move from the home side resulted in the second goal with Girish managing to find the net from top of the box with a right footer in the 21st minute.

Baba Tunde got into the goal-scoring act in the 38th minute when he got past two defenders and volleyed home from top of the box with a left-footer.

Tunde completed his hat-trick in the 47th minute when he collected a long ball from Muneer and scored with a powerful right footer.

The Army men pulled one back through M.G. Ramachandran in the 54th minute. Subsitute Srinath capped a fine day for Viva Kerala by scoring the next two goals in the 71st and 78th minutes respectively. On both occasions it was Tunde who gave the final pass.

After Wednesday's rest day, the tournament will resume on Thursday with Indian Bank taking on Salgaocar Goa.

Final qualifying phase

Meanwhile the Kerala Football Association in a press release said that the final qualifying phase of the NFL would be held at the Corporation stadium in Kozhikode during the last week of March. The final phase was allotted to Kochi but the non-availability of the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium forced the KFA to hold the matches in Kozhikode. Six teams will take part in the tournament and the top two will qualify for the next year's NFL.

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