The Hindu : Sport / Football : BEML (EM) finishes runner-up

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Monday, Dec 24, 2007
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BEML (EM) finishes runner-up

BANGALORE: BEML (EM) snatched the runner-up slot in the super division football league.

At the Football Stadium here on Sunday, the concluding day of the league, BEML needed a win to nose ahead of MEG & Centre on better goal difference and that was exactly what it achieved, a 2-1 verdict over KSP.

With this win, both BEML (EM) and MEG finished on 33 points, but the Earth Movers, with a better goal difference (31 for and four against, plus 27) as against MEG’s (26 for and one against, plus 25), sneaked through to the second spot behind champion HASC, which finished with 38 points.

KSP, with 27 points, ended in the fourth position.

Purposeful

BEML looked purposeful with the midfielders — Gopi, Khalender and Abdullahi Amza — playing close on the heels of the two strikers, Tikken Singh and Govinda.

Govinda put the Earth Movers in the lead heading home a Gopi cross from the right. Pradeep Kumar of KSP equalised in the 35th minute when he booted home a fumble from BEML custodian Ramana Kumar following a corner-kick by Arun Kumar.

However, Khalender sealed the issue even before half time with another header, this time off a cross from the left.

In the second session, Amza and then Khalender did come pretty close to adding to the tally for BEML, but were kept at bay by an alert Nagendra under the KSP bar.

Match drawn

Earlier, SAI and DYSS played out a 1-1 draw in another super division tie.

Vishal Kumar struck for SAI in the 25th minute, but DYSS got the equaliser through Shaji Kumar in the 70th.

DYSS and Royals, with two points each, face relegation.

Bimal Minz of HASC, with eight goals, emerged the league’s highest goalscorer.

How they finished:

Super Division League: (read as P-played, W-won, D-drawn, L-lost, Pts–points):

HASC 14-12-2-0-38; BEML (EM) 14-10-3-1-33; MEG 14-10-3-1-33; KSP 14-8-3-3-27; BEL 14-8-3-3-27; LRDE 14-6-4-4-22; Postal 14-5-4-5-19; ASC 14-5-4-5-19; Southern Blues 14-5-2-7-17; CIL 14-3-5-6-14; SAI 14-3-5-6-14; ADE 14-3-4-7-13; Oriental 14-4-0-10-12; DYSS 14-0-2-12-2; Royals 7-0-2-5- (Scratched).

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