The Hindu : Sport / Football : Assam Rifles downs J&K Bank

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Saturday, Oct 27, 2007
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Assam Rifles downs J&K Bank

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Assam Rifles offers little incentives to footballers but there was no lack of effort from the ten spirited men who outshone the Jammu & Kashmir Bank in its final qualifying match of the Osian’s Durand Cup football tournament here on Friday.

Assam Rifles won the contest 2-1 at the Ambedkar Stadium to set up a pre-quarterfinal match against JCT five days from now, a well-earned rest for the unsung lads, who led 1-0 at the half time.

It was tough for Assam Rifles. As coach Santanu Basu observed, “my boys matched the pace on the ground but the aerial attacks were a problem.

The average physique of my players meant we had to rely on short passes and it was not easy to check the counter-attacks of the opposition.”

J&K Bank chose the long ball ploy to unsettle Assam Rifles but failed to finish the moves.

Ten man

Assam Rifles was reduced to ten men for the last thirty minutes, a period in which the game deteriorated into more body play.

There was purpose in most of the J&K Bank moves in the first session but then the strikers often fell into the off-side trap that Assam Rifles employed effectively.

On one occasion, S. Rizwan beat the trap but drove the ball wide.

The Srinagar outfit continued to dominate but Assam Rifles scored in the 24th minute when Akum Ao nicely directed the ball in from a cross by Thoithoiba Singh.

In the second session, Akum scored again with a deftly-executed volley after Meikegai Kamai had done the spadework but three minutes later Emanuiel Nnamani tapped in from a melee to raise the hopes for J&K Bank.

Assam Rifles lost Omana Kuttan to a second booking following a vicious foul and Assam Rifles was reduced to defending its lead. Abel Sema came close to scoring but his drive grazed the bar. Even as tempers rose in either camp, the game ended without any incident, thanks to some firm officiating by Sunil Dutt.

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