Cutting Corners - Durand Cup

For Churchill Brothers the long wait is over. It was not champagne football all the way but they finally shrugged off their chokers tag, by winning their first major trophy, the 120th Osian's Durand tournament. They also exorcised the ghosts of their 0-5 loss to Mahindra United in the 2001 Durand final, when defender Osamanu Husseini was shown the red card early in the match and the team crumbled playing with ten men for the remainder of the final.

Set up in 1991, Churchill Brothers is India's only family club, with the brothers investing money from their family businesses for the football club. Its headquarters is the ancestral bungalow in Novangully, a small ward of the village Varca. Churchill Brothers ushered in liberalization in Goan football. They were the first to get players from the North-East to Goa, pay big money to star players and acquire foreign coaches. But for years Churchill Brothers, had stumbled at the final hurdle. Thrice they were runners up in the NFL in 1997, 2000 and 2002, thrice in the Rovers Cup in 1997, 1999 and 2000, the 2001 Durand tournament, the 2002 IFA Shield and 1997 Dubai International tournament.

Never in the history of the Durand tournament, has one club owed so much to one man, as Churchill Brothers did to skipper Odafe Oneyka Okolie who scored eleven of their fourteen goals in five matches, about 80 per cent of the goals his team scored. His five goals in one match against Central Railway (Mumbai) is a Durand record. Overall Mohammed Habib of East Bengal has scored more goals in a single edition of the Durand tournament, fourteen in seven matches in 1972. However Habib scored 14 of the 25 goals East Bengal scored in 1972 that is about 56 per cent of his team's total number of goals.

Churchill Brothers' triumph is unique as they were without their inspirational Moroccan coach Karim Bencharifa, who was in Singapore with his wife, expecting their first child. He watched the matches online and gave constant instructions vie his mobile phone to assistant coach and former player Mario Soares. It was at Karim's insistence that in the second half of the final, Odafe shifted to midfield to curb Mahindra United's sustained pressure.

Maintaining the same squad, for successive years, except for some additions and with emphasis on fitness helped Churchill Brothers achieve success. Their junior internationals Naoba Singh, Vashum, Robert Lalmuana and Chitrasem Chandan Singh are playing with greater maturity this year. With Brazilian and former Mohun Bagan player, Fabio Cortez Vidal likely to join Churchill Brothers soon, they will be a formidable force in the fortcoming I-League

Big budget teams like holders Dempo and runners-up JCT faltered in the 2007 Durand tournament, losing in the quarter finals to spirited Air India and Salgaoacar respectively. The national players returning to their clubs after the World cup qualifiers were unimpressive. Dempo's midfielder Clifford Miranda's leg was fractured and he will be out of action for some months. Mahindra United's N.P. Pradeep suffered a hamstring injury and both Climax Lawrence and Steven Dias had foot injuries.

As always new talent emerged in the 120th Durand tournament. Air India's nippy midfielder Sanju Pradhan excelled with his trapping, off the ball running and probing runs as did their tenacious defenders Nirmal Chettri and Dhanchandra Singh. Salgaocar's striker Anil Kumar and goalkeeper Marcus Basumatari, poached >from Kerala and Meghalaya respectively have a bright future. Seven times Durand champions Border Security Force (BSF), down in the dumps for the last decade, had a good new look team and goalkeeper Deepak Kumar (Assam), and midfielders P.H. Boy Singh (Manipur) and Sarabjeet Singh (Punjab) impressed.