The Hindu : Sport / Football : MEG lifts George Hoover Cup

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Friday, Aug 03, 2007
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MEG lifts George Hoover Cup

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: Madras Engineering Group (MEG) is the new Super Division League champion. At the Football Stadium here on Thursday, as rain came pouring so did the goals, the Sappers swamped Southern Blues 7-0 to lift the George Hoover Cup, with a match to spare.

Going into the match with 19 points as league leader, MEG needed a win and achieved it in style for the title. But not before going through a tense opening session. While KSP has 18 points with a match in hand, HASC, the reigning champion, can aggregate only 21 points even if it wins all its remaining four matches, the last one being against MEG. HASC dropped two crucial points against Postal on Wednesday.

The four-month break seemed to have done a world of good for the MEG players. Coach Sajith Kumar looked mighty pleased. “The boys were given a long break to go home and we reassembled a month ago. We were looking for a big win in the league and it came today” said the unassuming coach, who has been with the team for the last two years.

Freak goal

MEG began with a freak goal. Nguerilal, who struck four goals including a hat-trick, chipped one from the right and the ball sailed into the far corner.

And then came a strong retaliation from the promoted side — Southern Blues. But luck was not with it on this day. First a long Deepu shot eluded the outstretched hands of Malay Paul in the MEG goal, but Sarath Singh came up with a goalline save. Soon after, a powerful header by Uday Kumar rebounded off the horizontal.

MEG countered the twin escape with two quick strikes, with Nigilraj-Dipan Thapa combination working to a nicety. Nigilraj finished it off on both the occasions.

Nguerilal then took over the mantle of getting the goals netting twice before the break.

With the rain coming down steadily in the second half, the match looked like meandering before Nguerilal once again converted home a Dipan fine through. Substitute Rabion Singh completed the spree when he bulged the nets again off a Dipan cross from left.

MEG has 22 points from eight outings, while Southern Blues, who plays CIL in its last match, has tallied six points and is above BEL, LRDE and ADE in the table.

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