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Air India triumphs

Principal Correspondent

Surojit Roy scored the match-winner
Air India did well to hang on to the goal

CHAMPIONS: The Air India team which won the E.K. Nayanar Memorial Gold Cup football tournament.

KANNUR: It turned out to be a memorable night for Air India on Wednesday.

The Mumbai team, quite the underdog, won the second E.K. Nayanar Memorial Gold Cup football tournament, beating its fancied rival from Brazil, Ferroviaria, Sao Paulo, 1-0 in the final, watched by a capacity crowd of about 35,000, at the Jawahar Municipal Stadium.

The most important goal of the tournament was scored by Surojit Roy, in the ninth minute.

He made no mistake from inside the box with his header, off a cross from Ravinder Singh down the left, following a throw-in from Uttam Singh.

It was the only goal conceded by Ferroviaria in the competition!

Air India did well to hang on to the goal, quelling all the attempts from the Brazilians to equalise.

Little went right for the Brazilians on Wednesday and they had to play the last ten minutes of the game with 10 men, following the send-off of Reinaldo, for violent conduct.

Solid defence

Ferroviaria strove really hard to score in the second half, but its strikers were frustrated by some solid defence.

Santosh Koli, Ravinder, Santosh Singh, Uttam Singh, Napolean Singh and Michael Tayo ensured that their team kept the lead till the end.

Air India custodian, E.C. Sharat, named the best goalkeeper of the tournament, was superb under the bar.

Paresh Shivalkar, who has had a great tournament, played a key role with some startlingly quick runs down the left to put the Brazilian defence under pressure.

Chances missed

The Brazilians did get opportunities to score, especially for Frederico Oliviera in the first half and Washington Luis in the second, it clearly wasn’t their night.

It wasn’t a night to remember for Robinson Michel either, who always tried to create chances for his mates.

He, however, had the consolation of getting the ‘Man of the tournament’ award.

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