The Hindu : Sport / Football : BEML in semifinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 24, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Football

BEML in semifinals

BANGALORE: BEML (Earth Movers) topped Group A with a 4-3 win over ASC in the league stage of the Puttaiah memorial football tournament for Super division teams. For the handful that turned up at the Football stadium here on Wednesday, there was little doubt about the winners, for ASC which had surprised KSP and outplayed both Postal and ADE in its earlier outings, was hardly in the picture.

The Army lads failed to knit one goal-worthy move for the whole of the first half and most of the second and, once down 1-4, somehow found it in them to slot home two more consolation goals to make the final scoreline look respectable.

BEML is clearly the better side and deserves its place in the semifinals. But if it dropped two points to KSP after a 1-1 draw it was its own doing.

After 30 minutes of listless play, Sanath Kumar fired a left footer to the far corner and added one more a minute before halftime. Naveen headed home a flag kick from Shyam in the 77th minute and the match seemed to pick up pace from then on.

Substitute Maria Joseph made it 4-0 in the 79th minute. Though Khalander pulled one back for ASC off a penalty award after he was brought down inside the box by Dhinda, the scoreline looked healthy for BEML.

However, two goals in as many minutes by Rakesh and substitute Raju Biswas produced a scoreline that suggested that the match was closer than it actually was.

BEML will now meet MEG, Group B runner-up, in the first semifinal while HASC will take on ASC in the other semifinal on Friday.

In an inconsequential match, ADE got its first point with a 4-4 draw against Postal. Einstein (thrice) and Arun Pandey got the goals for Postal while Santosh, Gnanaprakash (2) and Vinod netted for ADE.

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

Sport