Qualifying Tournament to the 9th Asian Sub-Junior (U16) Football Championships

Qualifying Tournament to the 9th Asian Sub-Junior (U16) Football Championships:

Hosts India start strong favourites:
June 19: The ninth Asian Sub-Junior (under-16) football championship qualifiers get underway at the JRD Tata Sports Complex, in the steel city of Jamshedpur tomorrow. Altogether four teams -- Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India - are tucked in the qualifying Group 4. Bhutan, which was earlier drafted to play, pulled out at the eleventh hour.
The tournament will be played on a league basis. With the pull-out of Bhutan, the tournament has now been reduced to an eight-day affair with the reduction in the number of matches from 10 to six. Each team will play the other once with the winner qualifying for the main event, to be held in Vietnam in September.
The Indian team has the one or the other talented youngster in their ranks.
The Team: Goalkeepers: Singhe Marandi, Lakshman Das; Defenders: Amjad Ali Khan (Bengal - CAPTAIN), Abdul Rauf Khan, Anupam Sarkar, Debabrata Das, Rajive Ahmed, Lakshman Singh; Midfielders: Mehboob Hussain, Zaiful Houzel, Bhuban Singh Joshi, Zuram Chanagaroum, Sumit Thapa; Forwards: Birjob Musahary (SAI Guwahati), S. Malswam Tulunga (Tata Football Academy, Bihar), Syed Rahim Nabi (Bengal), Rocus Lamarg (Meghalaya), Jetin Singh, Wajed Ali, Burland Synkon.
COACH: ISLAM AKHMEDOV (Uzbekistan); ASSISTANT COACH: ANANTA GHOSH (SAI Calcutta, Bengal), HERING SHANGALIANG (Meghalaya), GEE KERGIS (Kerala); MANAGER: RANJIT GUPTA (Bengal).

GROUP 4
TEAM	P	W	D	L	GF:GA	PTS.
1. Bangladesh	3	2	1	0	04:02	07
2. India	3	2	0	1	09:01	06
3. Pakistan	3	0	2	1	03:09	02
4. Sri Lanka	3	0	1	2	01:05	01

20-June-00

India vs Pakistan

6:0 (2:0)

21-June-00

Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka

1:0 (1:0)

23-June-00

India vs Sri Lanka

3:0 (0:0)

24-June-00

Bangladesh vs Pakistan

2:2 (1:0)

26-June-00

Sri Lanka vs Pakistan

1:1 (1:1)

27-June-00

India vs Bangladesh

0:1 (0:0)

20.June: India 6-0 Pakistan - Goals: 1:0 Malswam Tulunga (9'), 2:0,6:0 Syed Rahim Nabi (20',75'), 3:0 Amjad Ali Khan (55'), 4:0 Abdul Rauf Khan (60'), 5:0 Zaiful Houzel (?').
A determined India exploited a sloppy defence to trash Pakistan 6-0 in their inaugural Asian Sub-Junior Championships Group Group 4 Qualifier at the JRD Sports Complex in Jamshedpur.
The Indian forwards pierced through the rival defence with ease to begin their campaign in style in what turned out to be a totally one-sided affair.
Striker Syed Rahim Nabi fired in two goals while TFA-recruit Malswam Tulunga, captain Amjad Ali Khan, Abdul Rouf Khan, Zaiful Houzel chipped in with a goal each to complete the tally.

23.June: India 3-0 Sri Lanka - Goals: 1:0,2:0 Syed Rahim Nabi (55'67'), 3:0 Malswam Tulunga (78').
Two headers from Syed Rahim Nabi in the second half paved the way for India's 3-0 win over Sri Lanka in the Asian Sub-Junior Championships Group 4 Qualifiers at the JRD Tata Sports Complex.
After a barren first half, prolific striker Nabi gave India the lead in the 55.minute off a header and then struck again in similar fashion in the 67.minute. Eleven minutes later, TFA product from Manipur, Malswam Tulunga, powered in a rightfooter to complete the tally.

27.June: India 0-1 Bangladesh - Goals: 0:1 Anwar Ul-Karim (88').
The India U-16s hopes of reaching the final round of the 9th Asian Sub-Junior football Championship came to a crushing end, as they went down 0-1 to Bangladesh in a vital Group 4 league exchange at the JRD Tata sports complex in Jamshedpur.
The hosts missed chances galore and even muffed up a penalty before Bangladesh striker Anwar Ul Karim struck the all-important goal barely two minutes before the final whistle to propel his team to the next stage of the tournament, scheduled to be held in Vietnam in September.
Karim scored the goal with a neat placement following a gem of a pass from right half Masood Alam, to seal the fate of the Indians, who needed only a draw to book a ticket for Vietnam. India finished their engagements in the four-team group collecting six points, one less than Bangladesh, who move on. The host nation can, however, nurse a faint hope of qualifying for the final round in the event of Bangladesh being disqualified for fielding over-age players.

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