The Hindu : Sport / Football : Annamalai is champion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 02, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Football

Annamalai is champion

CHIDAMBARAM: Host Annamalai scored an easy 2-0 win over Madras to win the title at the all-India inter-zone inter-university football tournament here on Friday.

Annamalai midfielders were exceptional throughout the encounter. Apart from feeding the forwards with some precise passes, they also blocked the opponent’s moves effectively.

Annamalai forwards, who initially found it hard to penetrate the rival defence, were forced to go for long-rangers. Some of the strikes were threatening, but many sailed over the post.

Madras came very close to taking the lead, but Jacob’s shot from just outside the penalty area hit the post. Apart from this effort, Madras players hardly made any attempts to score.

And Madras paid the price for the defensive approach, when Sirajudeen put the host in the lead in the 31st minute. From then on, the Annamalai players grew in confidence and started applying immense pressure on the rival defence.

Annamalai kept the momentum going in the second half and created some good scoring chances. Ramesh, who missed opportunities to score on a couple of occasions after doing all the hard work, succeeded finally in the 58th minute to put Annamalai in a comfortable position.

Down by two goals, Madras found the going tough and surrendered without much of a fight.

Dr. M. Ramanathan, Vice-Chancellor, Annamalai University, gave away the prizes.

The results: Final: Annamalai 2 (Sirajudeen, Ramesh) bt Madras 0.

Third place: Calicut 2 (Satheesh) bt Burdwan 0. — Sports Reporter

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport