Note-1: East Bengal have signed Brazilian Marcos Secco as replacement for his injured brother Douglas da Silva for the upcoming continental AFC Cup. Marcos will only be allowed to play for East Bengal in the AFC Cup, but not in the National League.

Note-2: The Mohun Bagan-SAIL Academy is searching for talents across northern India for their residential Academy in Durgapur, north of Calcutta. In the first week of March the Academy coach Bhupender Rawat will be in Dehra Dun to conduct trials to search for talent in Uttaranchal.

25. February
The AIFF executive committee yesterday held a meeting in the capital New Delhi and in a press release today the AIFF informed about the decisions taken yesterday.

9th National League - Calcutta: Mohun Bagan AC 0-1 Vasco SC - Goal: 0-1 Alex Ambrose (25').
Vasco SC finally earned their first win in the 9th National League, a lone goal victory away to three time former champions Mohun Bagan AC at the Saltlake Stadium, Calcutta. Though winning today Vasco remain bottom of the table with now five points from nine matches, while Mohun Bagan remained outside the relegation spots with 11 points from nine matches.
While Vasco finally see some light at the end of the tunnel, though they are still some points away from non-relegation spots; for Mohun Bagan the relegation spots are coming closer again after some poor results and no one should really think of talking about the title now, but rather think on how to avoid relegation. With four team going down from the 12 team league it will be a fight for survival until the end and if that is not realised at the Bagan camp, then it could have a terrible ending for Asia's oldest club, having just survived last season.
It was another match of missed chances for Mohun Bagan, who had more of the exchanges, but once more the team couldn't score. Bagan had their best chances through Jerry Zirsanga, Renedy Singh and Ashim Biswas. Vasco had one aim for the match to take point out out of it, but it became three as striker Alex Ambrose scored the winning goal in the 25.minute of a pass from Dennis Cabral. After taking the lead Vasco relied on counter-attacks with their defence mostly able to absorbe the Bagan attacks and if not, then there was still seasoned Virender Singh in goal, who had an outstanding match which earned him the "Man of the Match" award. What makes Virender's performance under the bar so astonishing is that he only had to play as Vasco's No.1 keeper Brazilian Rogerio Ramos is out injured. Virender had come out of retirement at the beginning of the season, after already having been Indian junior goalkeeping coach and now has proved that he has it in him on a match day.
MOHUN BAGAN: Prasanta Dora, Dulal Biswas, Mehraj Din Wadao, Eduardo Chacon Coelho Lacerda, Manas Das (61' Rishi Kapoor), Jerry Zirsanga, Basudeb Mondal, Noel Wilson, Renedy Singh (58' Dharamjit Singh), Roberto Mendes Silva, Ashim Biswas (Sunil Chetri).
VASCO: Virender Singh, Nicolau Colaco, Agnelo Colaco, Vinu Jose, Kamal Thapa (16' Avinash Thapa), Dennis Cabral, Sushanth Mathew, Menino Fernandes, Krishnan Nair Ajayan, Sidney Santana Rodrigues, Alex Ambrose (69' K Anees).
REFEREE: MK Roy.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Virender Singh (Vasco).
Detailed information and pictures are available at the >>IndianFootball.Com NFL Special.

9th National League - Goa: Churchill Brothers SC 1-1 Fransa FC - Goals: 0-1 Anbalath Suliman Firoze (52'), 1-1 Marcos Pereira (85').
A late equaliser gave relegation-threatened Churchill Brothers at least a one-all draw against promoted Fransa FC from a Round 10 match in the 9th National League at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. Churchill who wanted a win today to move closer to the non-relegation places, now have only six points from nine matches to remain 11th in the table, while Fransa by conceeding the late equaliser now have 14 points from 10 matches to stay in fourth place.
The match was played at a slow pace with not much action in the first half. The match came alive in the second half when Churchill Brothers Ghanian defender Osumanu Husseini handled the ball inside the area to deny fellow countrymen Benjamin Owusu Ansah to get the ball of a cross from Hardip Singh Saini. Referee Chamchuk Lama from Sikkim pointed to the spot and defender Anbalath Suliman Firoze shot Fransa into the lead in the 52.minute past keeper Vinay Singh. Thereafter it was Fransa who went in search for the second goal with substitute Sebastiao Endro and Joseph Toochukwu Ogor being the culprits or keeper Vinay Singh denying their team a goal. With ten minutes remaining Churchill Brothers made a late charge to at least salvage a point from the match with Brazilian Marcos Pereira working in tandem with seasoned Ratan Singh and youngster Chitrasen Chandam Singh, but Kalyan Chaubey had another good day in office for Fransa. Still Churchill Brothers got the equaliser in the 85.minute when Marcos was set-up by new on loan signing Sujay Datta to earn his team a point and himself the "Man of the Match" award and cash prize.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Marcos Pereira (Churchill).
Detailed information and pictures are available at the >>IndianFootball.Com NFL Special.

13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group B: Uttar Pradesh 1-0 Sikkim - Goal: 1-0 Purnam Chauhan (29').
13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group C: Haryana 1-8 Orissa - Goals: 1-0 Pooja (5'), 1-1,1-3,1-5,1-7,1-8 Sradhanjali Samantaray (16',28',61',77',81'), 1-2,1-4 Pinki Bompal Nagar (22',32'), 1-6 Laxmi Priya Sahoo (73')
13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group D: Maharashtra 2-2 Jharkhand - Goals: 1-0 Manasi Surve (3'), 1-1 Prabha Kumari (17'), 2-1 Genevieve Fernandes (22'), 2-2 Mejhren Kindu (56').
13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group E: Tamil Nadu 1-0 Tripura - Goal: 1-0 V Ambiga (51').

40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - Semifinal: Jharkhand 0-0,3-2 Mizoram [penalties] - Goals: none.

24. February
9th National League - Mumbai: Mahindra United 3-1 State Bank of Travancore - Goals: 0-1 AB Kabeer (12'), 1-1 Flavio de Oliveira Rodrigues (38'), 2-1,3-1 Rodrigo Calisto de Almeida (87',90+1').
Mahindra United finally broke their sequence of three consecutive one-one draws, after they beat State Bank of Travancore, 3-1, at the Cooperage Ground, in this 9th National League match. However, they left it for late in the match, to convert the 1-1 score-line into a much-sought-after victory. The win sees United consolidate their third position in the league standings, and close in on the leaders East Bengal.
United would have been feeling an unwelcome deja-vu, with the score 1-1 and only three minutes of normal time to go. In each of their last three previous matches, they had conceded the first goal to their opponents, before equalizing themselves. But all those matches finished 1-1. And so it seemed to be the case today too. Until a late hoorah saw them find the back of the net twice. Their celebrations seemed marked more with much-wanted relief, rather than joyful exuberance. The final score in no way flattered United, and although they seemed asleep for the first half-hour, they more than made up for that lax start over the remainder of the match.
United played their much settled formation consisting of three centre-backs, two wing-backs, a couple of central midfielders, an attacking link-man, and two strikers. There were no personnel changes from their last match, in the starting line-up, apart from their new Brazilian recruit, Rodrigo da Silva, replacing the suspended and much-influential Shanmugam Venkatesh, in the attacking midfield role. The last two visitors to the Cooperage, Tollygunge and JCT, had both played 4-4-2 formations, and both had salvaged 1-1 draws. So it came as no surprise, when SBT too lined up the same way. For, compared to Mahindra, they are a modest team, and so naturally would have quite welcomed a return to Kerala with a point.
As mentioned earlier, United seemed to still be in bed for the first 30 minutes of the game. Perhaps they were up late the previous night, keeping track of the UEFA Champions League action. During this period however, to their credit, SBT were much more than well awake, and up for the occasion. SBT seemed dangerous, sharp and quick, unlike their sluggish hosts. SBT also were quite composed on the ball, moving it'well, stretching United across the pitch, by passing from side-to-side. They were closing down United defenders, showing fight, doing the dirty work, and winning the 50-50 tackles. United's build-up plays were literally non-existent, and they hardly had any meaningful possession to speak of. SBT threatened more so down United's right flank, during their early forays. They just displayed more hunger in their play. In all this, "Man of the Match" Asif Saheer was most impressive. The diminutive forward, was a bag of tricks, and was often proving too much to handle for the United defence. Apart from his skill, his pace and strength on the ball were extremely impressive. Hence, with all these factors into consideration, it seemed quite logically appropriate, when SBT took a much-deserved lead in the 12.minute. A quickly worked throw-in by SBT, was helped by Martyn John onto Saheer. Saheer then didn't waste much time in threading a delicate through-ball for the onrushing AB Kabeer from midfield, who coolly slotted the ball into the net with his first-touch. In fact, the impending threat of SBT was evident 2 minutes on in the match itself, when Martyn John took too long to shoot on goal, from just outside the 6-yard box, after KS Joby had found him there in acres of space, following a good run down the SBT left.
18 minutes on, Abdul Hakkim burst through the United defence, and played the ball across the penalty box for the incoming Martyn John. Martyn, however, wasted the golden opportunity to make it 2-0, as he skewed his shot over the bar. Again, in the 37th minute, Peter Siddique blocked a goal-bound shot by Martin.
Moreover, SBT were putting to waste United's constant attempts to play the ball behind or through their defenders, by holding a very good line with their back four, thereby playing the off-side trap to perfection. Flavio Rodrigues was thus caught offside on innumerable occasions.
United's debutant, Rodrigo da Silva, visibly didn't appear match-fit. He rarely was able to help out much in defence, and contributed to United's attacks hardly ever. Resultantly, United were not getting much joy in the middle of the park battle with SBT.
Fortunately for them, United changed tactics around the half-hour mark. R da Silva and R de Almeida interchanged positions, with de Almeida taking the playmaking onus upon himself, while da Silva hung around in attack. De Almeida exerted much more influence in the midfield for United, and resultantly, their play began to improve.
This move bore fruit for United in the 38.minute, as they got the equaliser. De Almeida played an exquisite defence-splitting through ball for Flavio to run onto. This time, for once, Flavio evaded the SBT offside-trap, and calmly side-footed the ball past the hapless SBT goalkeeper, to make the score 1-1. Though seemingly undeserved on the balance of play till then, the goal was pleasing on the eye none-the-less.
Following their goal, United seemed much better, playing with more confidence. Their wing-backs were now not giving the SBT wide players the space for them to run into down the flanks, while de Almeida looked to pull the strings to United's play, even more effectively. Thus it remained 1-1 at half-time.
The second half was dominated by United. Coach Nayeemuddin must have made quite clear to his players, that a draw this time round would be unacceptable, and the players seemed to have gotten the cue. United were looking for further through balls, and balls played down the side and behind the often square SBT back-line. The Brazilians were looking to inter-play, and seemed an ever-present threat, more so when the relatively ineffective da Silva was substituted. SBT had now completely lost the control of the game they had earlier enjoyed, and were looking to just hold on for the draw. Naturally, more space opened up in midfield for the more determined United to pass it around, and exert greater influence on the game. Although they did not create opportunities in abundance, one got the feeling it was just a matter of time, until they scored. The physical presence of Abhishek Yadav, now, resulted in more freedom for the Brazilian duo.
75 minutes on, de Almeida's good early cross, after a good run by him down the right flank, was flapped at by goalkeeper Harshal Rehman, but Abhishek headed the ball over the open goal. 81 minutes on, Harshal again failed to clear from a United corner, but again the ball was put over the bar, this time by de Almeida, who had more time to take the shot than he probably realised.
With 87 minutes gone, de Almeida did well to earn a corner for his team. Abhishek's header to meet the corner-kick, deflected off de Almeida, and into the goal. Although lucky for it, de Almeida was in the right place at the right time to score. And after his second half performance, he probably deserved a goal.
However, there was more to follow in injury time. With SBT players caught up-field in search of an equalizer, on a swift counter-attack, Jatin Singh Bisht laid the ball on for de Almeida, who decided to chance his shot from way outside the box, considering he had ample time and space. He connected well, and Harshal dived in vain, as the shot swerved into the back of the net.
The icing had been put on the cake for United, and more so for de Almeida. They'll now be hoping to replace their 'string' of draws, now finally broken, with a 'necklace' of victories.
MAHINDRA: Sandip Nandy, Surkumar Singh (36' Steven Dias), Covan Lawrence, Peter Siddique, Arun Malhotra, Debabrata Roy, Kalia Kulothungan (78' Mahesh Gawli), Rodrigo Marcos Marques da Silva (63' Abhishek Yadav), Jatin Singh Bisht, Flavio de Oliveira Rodrigues, Rodrigo Calisto de Almeida.
SBT: PV Harshal Rehman, Paul Anthony, M Abdul Basheer, M Lanel Thomas, KS Joby (71' NP Pradeep), KM Abdul Naushad, AB Kabeer, Mohammed Harris, Martyn John (77' AG Mohammed Aslam), MA Abdul Hakkim, T Asif Saheer.
REFEREE: Benjamin D'Silva (Goa).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Asif Saheer (SBT).

9th National League - Goa: Dempo SC 3-2 East Bengal Club - Goals: 1-0,2-1,3-1 Ranty Martins Soleye (10',46',73'), 1-1 Baichung Bhutia (22'), 3-2 Juliano Martins (90+1').
Federation Cup champions and title contenders Dempo SC inflicted the first defeat of their 9th National League campaign on champions and league leaders East Bengal Club with 2-3 away defeat in Goa at the well filled Nehru Stadium, Margao. East Bengal still lead the league with 21 points from 10 matches, while Dempo have closed the gap with now 20 points from nine matches, with a match in hand against Sporting Clube de Goa.
Nigerian striker Ranty Martins Soleye was the hero of the day for Dempo SC scoring all three goals. Ranty was later named "Man of the Match Award" for his match-winning performance and received the award from Dr.Juilo Garganta, a professor at the University of Porto and part of the touring Portuguese delegation.
Dempo took the lead in the 10.minute when a Clifford Miranda cross was chested down by Ranty, he moved past defender Madhab Das and then send a rocket past keeper Sangram Mukherjee from the top of the box. Down so early, East Bengal coach Subhas Bhowmick reacted and brought in midfielder Sasthi Duley for defender Madhab Das. And it seemed to work for East Bengal, as the champions got the equaliser in the 22.minute of Indian captain Baichung Bhutia. An alert Baichung intercepted a back pass from defender Raju Singh and chipped the ball over an advancing keeper Satish Kumar.
It remained one-all at the break, but soon after the restart Dempo once again went ahead with Ranty finishing off a move set-up by RC Prakash and Johnny D'Cruz playing a one-two between them. Dempo had more of the action after once more going ahead, but it was until the 73.minute then Ranty scored his teams third off a cross from RC Prakash to also complete his own hattrick. Still East Bengal weren't beaten yet as the red-and.gold tried to get back into the match. The best chance came once more Baichung's way, when he tried a typical bicycle kick in the 77.minute which went wide. It was only one minute into injury time that East Bengal pulled one back through Brazilian substitute striker Juliano Martins, but it was too late to try and salvage a draw.
With the win today, Dempo opened-up the NFL title race, though the Goans in total missed seven regular players, while East Bengal once more started with an all Indian line-up, though bringing on their foreign strikers later in the match.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Ranty Martins Soleye (Dempo).

13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group A: Karnataka 2-1 Delhi - Goals: 0-1 Vinita Baloni (45'), 1-1 Vanitha P (52'), 2-1 Shiva Shankari (68').
13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group F: Assam 0-0 Goa - Goals: none.

40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - Semifinal: West Bengal 1-1,4-5 Manipur [penalties] - Goals: 0-1 Charan Rai (3'), 1-1 Rahul Bhattacharya (13').

Note-1: Some will surely be asking that is with coach Shabbir Ali and Churchill Brothers?
Shabbir was supposed to return on February 21 to Goa from Hyderabad, where we went to see his ailing wife, but he hasn't returned so far and has asked for an extension of his leave. The Churchill Bros management have agreed and until Shabbir's return the team would be coached by Ghanian physio Janny Insuah with help from team manager Santiago Alfonso.

23. February
9th National League - Ludhiana: JCT Mills 1-1 Tollygunge Agragami - Goals: 0-1 Saumik Dey (42'), 1-1 Sukhwinder Singh (84').
Former champions JCT Mills came from behind to earn a one-all draw against Tollygunge Agragami in a 9th National League match at the Guru Nanak Stadium, Ludhiana. With both teams earning a point from the match, JCT now have 12 points from 10 matches, while Tollygunge have 11 points from nine matches.
In a fast-paced match both sides initially tried to establish their supremacy, but the longer the match lasted the more JCT took control of proceedings. Tollygunge relied on counter-attacks and in one such move in the 42.minute surprisingly took the lead. Ghanian Midfielder Suley Musah played the ball to winger Saumik Dey whose long-range effort went into the goal off a deflection from JCT defender Harpreet Singh over the head of keeper Mansuru Mohammed, who had no chance to stop the ball.
Down by a goal at the breather JCT came out of the lemon break with the urge to get the equaliser. And the Phagwara Millmen went all out, using their speedy wingers to set up some good chances, but all were wasted. As the match slowly came to an end, it became more open again as Tollygunge started counter-attacks, while JCT continued their raids. It was JCT who got the equaliser in the 84.minute when a Ram Pal shot came back into play of Tollygunge keeper Arindam Ghosh with Sukhwinder Singh there to nod the ball in. Both teams could have won the match thereafter, but no more goals were scored.
JCT: Mansuru Mohammed, Daljit Singh, Harpreet Singh, Julius Irabor Akpele, KV Dhanesh, Jaswinder Singh, Ram Pal, Sukhwinder Singh, Harvinder Singh, Manjit Singh, Hardip Singh Gill.
TOLLYGUNGE: Arindam Ghosh, Amitava Chanda, Isiaka Awoyemi, Debkumar Sashmal, Saumik Dey, Chinmoy Sarkar, Suley Musah, Suman Datta, Gauranga Datta, Surojit Bose, Akeem Abul Alem.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Akeem Abul Alem (Tollygunge).

13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group B: Punjab 7-0 Sikkim - Goals: 1-0,3-0,4-0,6-0,7-0 Pramjit Kaur (8',28',30',65',76'), 2-0,5-0 Jagdeep Kaur (19',56')
13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group C: Rajasthan 0-5 Haryana - Goals: 0-1,0-2,0-3,0-4,0-5 Pooja (15',29',49',57',76').
13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group D: Uttaranchal 0-2 Jharkhand - Goals: 0-1 Munita Kachhap (8'), 0-2 Beena Kerketta (12').
13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group E: Jammu&Kashmir 0-1 Tripura - Goals: 0-1 Giovinda Laxmi Jamatia (69').
13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group F: Chandigarh 0-5 Goa - Goals: 0-1 Gracy D'Costa (10'), 0-2,0-5 Blanka Barreto (19',60'), 0-3 Sharon Fernandes (35'), 0-4 Maymol Rocky (47').

Note-1: In the Goan capital of Panaji the first project of the Memorandum of understanding signed by the AIFF and GFA on one side and the University of Porto (Faculty of Sports Sciences and Physical Education) and the Portuguese Olympic Committee was launched today. Under the programme Indian youth coaches would be trained in modern training methods with more specific development projects coming later.
Present at the launch ceremony were the Consul General of Portugal in Goa, Dr. Pedro Cabral Adao; the Portuguese Olympic Committee president Commandante Vicente Moura; Faculty of Sports Science director Prof. Dr. Jorge Bento, the GFA president Shivanand Salgaocar and GFA secretary Savio Messias.
Dr. Adao said, "It is a magic moment for all of us involved. We diplomats some times find it difficult to achieve our objective of bringing two cultures closer but sports makes these, otherwise tough tasks, very easy."

Note-2: At a press conference in Jamshedpur today, the Chief of Tata Steel Sports Department and Tata Football Academy Satish Pillai told the media that some of the best former TFA players would be seen in action for the Tata Invitation XI on saturday in a Tsunami charity match against Calcutta giants Mohammedan Sporting Club.
Pillai said football legends including Padmashree Chuni Goswami and Asia's best goalkeeper award winner Peter Thangaraj, would be in attendance during the match.
Tata Invitation XI: Subhashish Roy Chowdhury, Deepak Kumar Mandal, Bhola Prasad, Subhash Chakraborty (all East Bengal), Manas Das, Noel Wilson, Renedy Singh, Malswama, Jerry Zirsanga (all Mohun Bagan), Chirodeep Chattopadhayay, Warundeep Singh, Gurjinder Singh, Hirshito Elangbam, Satish Kumar, Lester Mark Fernandez, Parminder Singh (all TFA), Jibon Singh, Prakash Kumar, TB Binesh. Coach : Ranjan Chowdhury.

Note-3: The war of words between Salgaocar president Shivanand Salgaocar and Fransa president Mickky Pacheco entered it's next round today with Mr. Salgaocar making a press release, while Mr. Pacheco send a three age letter to the AIFF president PR Das Munshi. But the rhetoric was much more low key and both sides asked the AIFF to look for better refereeing in the NFL, which is the cause of the whole episode.
Mr. Salgaocar, the GFA president and the AIFF treasurer, asked any organiser of a tournament or league to come forward and prove that he was involved in any match fixing for his club Salgaocar to say that the allegations from Mr. Pacheco were not at all true. Like Fransa, Salgaocar had been at the receiving end of wrong decisions of the referee.
Mr. Pacheco's letter to the AIFF president asked the national body to ensure that the best referee's blow the whistle in the NFL that good teams are not hampered in the league. In the letter a number of incidences of mistakes by referees are listed and he calls for non-biased referess for Fransa matches.

Note-4: East Bengal's Brazilian Douglas da Silva was released from the Apollo Gleneagles Hospital in Calcutta today. Douglas had been at the hospital since Friday, when he had broken his shin bone in an NFL tie against Mahindra United. On saturday he had been successful operated, but he will be out of action for likely six month's.

22. February
9th National League - Goa: Salgaocar SC 2-1 Fransa FC - Goals: 1-0 Felix Ibrebru (9'), 1-1 Hardip Singh Saini (69'), 2-1 Remus Gomes (90').
Former champions Salgaocar SC needed a late winner to beat promoted Goan rivals Fransa FC 2-1 in a 9th National League match at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. Salgaocar moved out of the relegation zone and into fifth spot with now 11 points from nine matches, while Fransa remained on 13 points from as many matches.
In the last couple of rounds the refereeing has come under severe criticism from the participating clubs as all seem to be at a disadvantage. Today referee Saji Kurian made two key controversial decisions which both resulted in goals, one each for Salgaocar and Fransa.
Salgaocar took the lead in the 9.minute when Nigerian striker Felix Ibrebru scored of a penalty. The penalty decision was controversial as Felix was brought down by Fransa defender Sanjeev Maria, but it was one of those 50% decisions were some referees blow the whistle while others say play on. In the 19.minute Fransa defender Louis Aniweta received a yellow card and his club's president Mickey Pacheco got agitated by the decision, still angry with the penalty that he kicked a table in the VVIP area alleging that his team was being targetted by the referees. Inbetween Fransa could have equalised through striker Sebastiao Endro but keeper Juje Siddi made a timely save. Thereafter Fransa keeper Kalyan Chaubey denied Salgaocar twice to increase the lead.
Fransa came out of the break with the urge to get the equaliser. Midfielder Hardip Singh Saini made a long-range effort four minutes into the half wihich didn't get the desired result. Then in the 69.minute Fransa got a controvertial freekick when Salgaocar captain Bello Rasaq played the ball back to keeper Juje Siddi. Jules Alberto took the freekick inside the box chipping it over the wall to Hardip Singh Saini in an offside position who headed in, but no offside was called by the referee or his assistant. But Salgaocar had the last laugh when Remus Gomes headed in the winner in the 90.minute of a Prashant Jaggi freekick.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Remus Gomes (Salgaocar).

13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group A: Karnataka 2-0 Meghalaya - Goals: 1-0 Shiva Shankari (25'), 2-0 Namajamma (63').
13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group F: Chandigarh 0-0 Assam - Goals: none.

40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - Quarterfinal League Group B: Manipur 2-1 Karnataka - Goals: 1-0,2-0 LB Singh (30',44'), 2-1 Dayananda (72').
40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - Quarterfinal League Group B: Uttaranchal 1-3 Jharkhand - Goals: 1-0,2-0 Pachau Lalampuia (27',68'), 3-0 S Henry Gangte (76'), 3-1 Narendra Singh Ravtela.

Note-1: In a somewhat bizarre incidence Fransa FC president Francisco 'Mickey' Pacheco called a press conference at the Nehru Stadium during halftime of the Salgaocar-Fransa match to tell the media about the biased refereeing in the NFL and that he would pull out his team from the league if this continued.
Mr. Pacheco alleged that today's referee for the Salgaocar-Fransa match was fixed so that Salgaocar win, who where in the relegation zone before the match. Also he questioned how Salgaocar president Shivanand Salgaocar could be AIFF treasurer and GFA president. Matches were bound to be fixed. Further he alleged that penalties were given against Fransa in the last three matches. Pacheco would write to the AIFF about the refereeing standard in the NFL.
Interestingly the Fransa equaliser after the breather was actually also a refereeing mistake.

Note-2: Sri Lankan striker Kasun Nadika Jayasuriya who played for Chennai's Indian Bank in the last two editions of the NFL is set to return to action in India. Jayasuriya will be in Goa tomorrow to finalise details to sign for Federation Cup champions Dempo SC as their third foreigner in the NFL if all goes well. Dempo has had some Nigerians and Brazilians on trial but none convinced coach Armando Colaco.

21. February
9th National League - Goa: Vasco SC 1-2 Dempo SC - Goals: 1-0 Alex Ambrose (21'), 1-1 Clifford Miranda (40'), 1-2 RC Prakash (48').
Vasco SC suffered another defeat in the 9th National League, this time a 1-2 loss at the hands of Goan rivals and Federation Cup champions Dempo SC at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. After their sixth defeat in eight matches Vasco remain bottom of the league with only two points, while Dempo kept their chase of champions East Bengal Club going with now 17 points from eight matches.
Dempo were weakened by the injuries to goalkeeper Satish Kumar and winger Sameer Naik, and due to his double booking Nigerian striker Ranty Martins Soleye had to also watch the match from the stands. Vasco wanted to utilise this weakness and finally get a win in this edition of the NFL. Vasco took the lead in the 20.minute, when Avinash Thapa intercepted a Dempo clearance, played the ball to Dennis Cabral on the right, who played the ball into the centre for striker Alex Ambrose headed passed the outstretched hands of keeper Francis Fernandes. Dempo were forced to replace another player this time Jose Colaco on the half hour with seasoned Mario Soares coming in and suddenly Dempo's midfield seemed to work harder with inputs from the old warhorse giving the strikers RC Prakash and Ishfaq Ahmed something to work with. The pressure suddenly was on the Vasco defence and in one such situation defender Vinu Jose brought down Prakash just outside the box. Clifford Miranda perfectly executed the freekick when he curled the ball past the wall and keeper Rogerio Ramos into the goal in the 40.minute.
Dempo came out of the lemon break with the urge to get ahead of their Goan rivals. It worked just three minutes into the second half as Clifford Miranda send Prakash free into the box and he scored with a left-footer past keeper Ramos. Dempo could have won by a bigger margin had Miranda and Ishfaq used the chances that came their way, but it was not to be.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Clifford Miranda (Dempo).

13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group B: Uttar Pradesh 0-4 Punjab - Goals: 0-1,0-3 Pramjit Kaur (18',73'), 0-2 Rupinder Kaur (30'), 0-4 Jagdeep Kaur (76').
13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group C: Orissa 16-0 Rajasthan - Goals: 1-0,3-0,5-0,6-0,7-0,8-0,10-0,11-0,12-0,13-0,15-0 Sradhanjali Samantaray (15',30',35',41',51',56',65',68',69',71',76'), 2-0,14-0 Pinki Bompal Nagar (29',74'), 4-0 Sharmila Maharana (34'), 9-0 Gitanjali Khuntia (63'), 16-0 Laxmi Priya Sahoo (81').
13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group D: Maharashtra 4-0 Uttaranchal - Goals: 1-0,2-0,3-0,4-0 Genevieve Fernandes (11',39',63',71').
13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group E: Tamil Nadu 11-0 Jammu&Kashmir - Goals: 1-0,2-0,4-0,8-0 J Shalini (1',10',22',42'), 3-0 S Pushpa (13'), 5-0,6-0,9-0 V Kokila (23,26,50'), 7-0,10-0 V Ambiga (34',52'), 11-0 T Anbarasi (90').

40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - Quarterfinal League Group A: West Bengal 5-0 Tamil Nadu - Goals: 1-0 Gauranga Biswas (25'), 2-0 H Lalmalsuawma (29'), 3-0 Ayan Choudhary (46'), 4-0 Pervez Alam (71'), 5-0 Mohammed Nadeem (90+1').
40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - Quarterfinal League Group A: Mizoram 1-0 Maharashtra - Goal: 1-0 Tete A Tlau (60').

NFL-Snippets:

Note-1: This coming saturday Jamshedpur will see the return of some of the best-ever Tata Football Academy cadets for a noble cause. A TFA invitational XI will take on Calcutta giants Mohammedan Sporting Club in a Tsunami charity match at the JRD Sports Complex Football Stadium. Amongst those confirming their coming and participation are internationals Renedy Singh and Deepak Kumar Mondal, junior internationals Gouramangi Singh and Malswama, and Gurpreet Singh. All these players play for top football clubs across India, while other former TFA cadets are also likely to come.

Note-2: In a bit of interesting news which we at IndianFootball.Com only received today, we got to know that the AIFF president PR Das Munshi had been invited by FIFA to attend the FIFA/UEFA Tsunami Charity last Tuesday in Barcelona, but Mr. Das Munshi declined the invitation and instead donated the USD 8,000 to the FIFA/AFC Tsunami Solidarity Fund, which would have been paid by FIFA to take care of all costs involved. A great gesture from the AIFF president!

Note-3: Guru Nanak Gurdwara FC from Leicester in England is currently on tour of Punjab to play friendly matches in different districts. Today they beat Gobindgarh FC 2-0 with both goals scored by Henry.
Earlier Guru Nanak Gurdwara FC had won 2-1 against Khalsa College, Jalandhar.

Note-4: The 22nd Rurka Kalan Sports Festival will be held at Rurka Kalan near here from February 26. The tournament will be organised by AS Bhagat Singh Sports Club.
Soccer will be the main attraction of the competition and top teams of the region are expected to take part in the tourney. Some of the participating teams that have confirmed their entry include Punjab Police, JCT Academy, PSEB, RCF Kapurthala, CRPF, BSF, Youth Football Club, Rurka Kalan and Mahilpur FC. The winner of the soccer event will be awarded Comrade PD Gupta Memorial Football Trophy.
Another event that attracts good teams during the fest is village level soccer competition. Top eight teams will vie for top houours in the event.

20. February
9th National League - Goa: Sporting Clube de Goa 3-1 State Bank of Travancore - Goals: 0-1 M Lanel Thomas (57'), 1-1 Adebayo Adewusi (61'), 2-1,3-1 MacPherlin Dudu Omagbemi (64',82').
Sporting Clube de Goa came from behind to beat a ten-men State Bank of Travancore 3-1 in a 9th National league match at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. After having played five matches Sporting Clube now have 10 points, while SBT remain on nine points from nine matches.
Sporting Clube completely controlled the match in the first half with their domination to such an extend that SBT didn't even have one chance, while Sporting Clube squandered too many chances with SBT keeper Harshal Rehman once more with a strong performance under the bar. The first half remained goalless and this backfired on Sporting Clube, when SBT surprisingly took the lead in the 57.minute when captain Lanel Thomas scored off a pass from Abdul Hakkim. But only two minutes later SBT were reduced to ten men, when central defender V Sivakumar received his second yellow card in the match from referee N Mohan. This weakened the SBT defence such that Sporting Clube got the equaliser through Nigerian midfielder Adebayo Adewusi in the 61.minute. Only three minutes later Sporting Clube captain MacPherlin Dudu Omagbemi shot his team into the lead off a Ajay Diwadkar pass. Sporting Clube then went in search for their third goal and they made sure of the win in the 82.minute, when Dudu scored his second goal of the match off a pass from Chidi Edeh.
REFEREE: N Mohan (Services).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: MacPherlin Dudu Omagbemi (Sporting Clube).

9th National League - Ludhiana: JCT Mills 3-0 Churchill Brothers SC - Goals: 1-0 Harpreet Singh (38'), 2-0 Julius Irabor Akpele (42'), 3-0 Sukhwinder Singh (45+1').
Three goals late in the first half gave JCT Mills an easy 3-0 victory against a depleted Churchill Brothers SC in a 9th National League match at the Guru Nanak Stadium, Ludhiana. After four matches without a win JCT returned to winning ways at home and now have 11 points from nine matches. Churchill Brothers with out coach Shabbir Ali, who is in Hyderabad attending his ailing wife, and missing a number of players due to suspension and injuries, remain in the relegation zone on five points from eight matches.
It was the Goans Churchill Brothers who made a better start into the match with Brazilian Marcos Pereira spearheading their attack, but their attacks went unused. JCT needed time to settle down after being pushed into the defensive, but when they did their strikers Harvinder Singh and Manjit Singh tested Churchill keeper Reagan Alemao. JCT scored all their three goals in an eight minute blitz just before halftime. JCT defender Harpreet Singh opened the scoring in the 38.minute with a placed shot. Only four minutes later a Daljit Singh throw-in reached Nigerian defender Julius Irabor Akpele, whose placed header beat the keeper. And another four minutes later just into injury time hard working midfielder Sukhwinder Singh scored of a rebound.
In the second half there wasn't much of action as JCT were happy with the score, while the depleted Churchill Brothers team only late in the match tried to get at least a consolation goal.
JCT: Mansuru Mohammed, KV Dhanesh, Harpreet Singh, Julius Irabor Akpele, Daljit Singh, Ram Pal, Sukhwinder Singh, Surjit Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Harvinder Singh, Manjit Singh.
CHURCHILL: Braz Reagan Alemao, Sanjay Parte, Ryan D'Souza, Satish Kumar Bharti, Lorendra Singh, Harinder Singh, Diego Godwin Franco, Roque Barreto, Ratan Singh, Vanlal Rova, Marcos Pereira.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Sukhwinder Singh (JCT).

13.Women Nationals - Preliminary League Group A: Meghalaya 0-2 Delhi - Goals: 0-1 Vinita Baloni (31'), 0-2 Sonia Gaur (73').

Note-1: Finally the AIFF and the major state FAs like the IFA and GFA have woken-up to the fact that without a long-term youth development programme it will be impossible to develop football in India.
After initial talks in 2003, a Momorandum of Understanding was signed by the Goa FA and the AIFF on one side, and the University of Porto with involvement of the Portuguese Olympic Committee and European Champions League winners FC Porto in October 2004.
As part of the MoU now a nine-member delegation is set to visit Goa from February 23 to Match 1 as the GFA secretary Savio Messias informed the Times of India. As part of the team would be two youth coaches conducting a course for Indian youth coaches.

19. February
The AIFF has released the schedule for the Round 12 to 22 matches of the 9th National League. The NFL is set to end on the weekend May 21/22, but the dates for the final Round 22 haven't been set for the matches and the dates will be announced later.
The 8th Super Cup will be held on May 28 as the grand finale of the season 2004/05. The Super Cup would be held under a new format with the NFL champions and runners-up facing each other in a one-off match, instead of the NFL and Federation Cup champions playing each other.
Schedule of the Rounds 12 to 22 are available at the >>IndianFootball.Com NFL Special .

40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - Quarterfinal League Group B: Jharkhand 0-0 Manipur - Goals: none.
40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - Quarterfinal League Group B: Uttaranchal 2-1 Karnataka - Goals: 1-0 Sarwan Kumar (9'), 1-1 Vinay Kumar (15'), 2-1 Udal Thapa (62').

Note-1: Indian football captain Baichung Bhutia along with new Tennis sensation Sania Mirza and cricket captain Saurav Ganguly were at the Kanchanjunga Stadium in Siliguri, north Bengal to auction own sporting memorablia and that of other Indian sport stars to raise money for the Tsunami victims. The trio were able to raise Rs 5,5 million, amongst it Rs 1,2 million raised from the auction and Rs 4.3 million came as donations. More than 15.000 people came to the stadium to catch a glimpse of Indian sporting heros and also try and bid for memorablia.
The event organised by the West Bengal government and the Siliguri Municipal Corporation was a complete success as the raise sum shows.

Note-2: East Bengal's Brazilian Douglas da Silva, who broke his shin bone yesterday late in the match against Mahindra United, was operated on in Calcutta today. The operation went well according to the doctors, but Douglas' fracture will take upto six month's to heal and for him to get back into action. Douglas received visits by many from East Bengal club - officials, coach Bhowmick, players; and also other Brazilians playing in Calcutta.
Meanwhile East Bengal have send a request to the AIFF to be allowed to replace Douglas with another foreigner for the remainder of the NFL and also with AFC Cup action starting next month, East Bengal could need someone in a defensive role
The IndianFootball.Com team wishes Douglas da Silva all the best! We wish Douglas a fast recovery.

Note-3: After being appointed advisor to the team management yesterday Compton Dutta was at the teams training today, while Pradip Chowdhury was absent as he still doesn't know what his new role is at the club.

Note-4: Champions Manipur named their 20 member Women's squad for the 13th Women National Championships with PK Kabui as coach and K Baruni as manager. The tournament stars tomorrow with Manipur capital Imphal hosting the tournament after a gap of 13 years.
MANIPUR WOMEN: GK: W Robita Singh, L Ronibala Singh; DF: H Thoi Singh, Kh Maichon Singh, K Rebika Singh, M Surmala Singh, K Promila Singh, N Naobi Singh, N Malemnganbi Chanu; MF: O Bembem Singh, Sh Rani Singh, Sh Shanti Singh, S Ibeyaima Singh, K Dhanapati Singh, Melody P Haokip, K Shandhyarani Singh; FW: Th Tababi Singh, S Manitombi Singh, A Sakhitombi Singh, N Geetarani Singh.

18. February
9th National League - Calcutta: East Bengal Club 1-1 Mahindra United - Goals: 1-0 Climax Lawrence (8'), 1-1 Shanmugam Venkatesh (43').
Champions East Bengal Club were held to a one-all draw by Mumbai giants Mahindra United in a 9th National League match at the Saltlake Stadium, Calcutta. Mahindra ended East Bengal's six match win streak with a draw, while Mahindra scored their third 1-1 draw in the league. East Bengal continue to lead the league with now 21 points from nine matches, while Mahindra have 13 points from eight matches to move up to third place.
Mahindra's Brazilian duo upfront of Flavio and Rodrigo could have send their team into the lead early on, but Flavio's shot rebounded off the crossbar. But East Bengal went ahead in the 8.minute with the next move resulted in a corner. Alvito D'Cunha took the corner which went in off a header from midfielder Climax Lawrence with the deflection from Mahindra defender Climax Lawrence, Climax' brother. Mahindra played positive football with their strong midfield of captain Shanmugam Venkatesh, Jatin Singh Bisht and Kalia Kulothungan creating space and chances for the strikers, especially Flavio. The equaliser came for Mahindra in the 43.minute when Jatin Singh Bisht played the ball into the box with Koluthungan missing, but Venkatesh was there at the far end to score.
After the breather both sides had their chances with especially in the middle of the second half the match being on the edge with both sides having the chance to score the winner. For Mahindra Koluthungan was the culprit twice, while for East Bengal Alvito and Baichung Bhutia missed good chances.
In the 85.minute East Bengal's Brazilian utility man Douglas da Silva was seriously injured and he is likely out for upto six month's. Douglas went for a header and in the process broke the shin bone on his right foot. For the first time the new medical services at the Saltlake Stadium were put to a real test.
EAST BENGAL: Rajat Ghosh Dastidar, Syed Rahim Nabi, Douglas da Silva (86' Debjit Ghosh), Selwyn Fernandes (68' Madhab Das), Muttath Suresh, Habibur Rahman Mondal, Chandan Das, Climax Lawrence, Alvito D’Cunha, Baichung Bhutia, Bijen Singh (55' Earnest Jeremiah).
MAHINDRA: Sandip Nandy, Surkumar Singh, Covan Lawrence, Arun Malhotra (86' Manju Nanjangud Shivananju), Peter Siddique, Shanmugam Venkatesh, Kalia Kulothungan, Jatin Singh Bisht, Debabrata Roy, Rodrigo Calisto de Almeida (69' Abhishek Yadav), Flavio de Oliveira Rodrigues.
REFEREE: A Arjunan (Services).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Alvito D'Cunha (East Bengal).

40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - Quarterfinal League Group A: West Bengal 2-0 Maharashtra - Goals: 1-0 H Lal Malswama (55'), 2-0 Gauranga Biswas (90+4').
40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - Quarterfinal League Group A: Mizoram 3-0 Tamil Nadu - Goals: 1-0 C Lalrinkima (19'), 2-0 Lalruatlikna (57'), 3-0 Laltuakliana (88').

Note-1: Mohun Bagan have appointed former footballers Compton Dutta and Pradip Chowdhury as advisors to the team management with coach Subrata Bhattacharya not happy with the move. This was the reaction to the poor performances of the team in recent NFL matches.

17. February
IndianFootball.Com along with it's partners theInder.net and Whatyaar Entertainment is happy to announce that the Mahanagar Lounge at the Top of Cologne on February 5, 2005 was a complete success, as we raised 1.508 Euros (close to Rs. 85,000) for Tsunami victims in southern India. It is a sum, which is higher than we expected and we would like to take this oppurtunity to thank all guests and aids as well as the representatives of the press for their numerous coming. A special thanks for their support and its confidence are entitled to our sponsors without whom the event couldn't have been held!

9th National League - Goa: Dempo SC 0-0 Salgaocar SC - Goals: none.
Federation Cup champions Dempo SC were held to a goalless draw by Goa Pro League champions Salgaocar SC in a 9th National League match at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. Dempo remain in second position with now 14 points from seven matches, while Salgaocar have eight points from eight matches.
It was an interesting Goan derby with chances for both sides, but Salgaocar can especially thank their keeper Juje Siddi to take a point from the match in the end as he saved a late Dempo penalty.
Dempo started well with midfielders Riston Rodrigues and Johnny D'Cruz setting-up chances, but RC Prakash and Clifford Miranda squandered them. Thereafter Salgaocar had more share of the action, but it remained an open game althrough. Salgaocar could have taken the lead through Francis Andrade or Nigerian Felix Ibrebru, but both missed their chances. In the second situation in the 25.minute Dempo keeper Satish Kumar injured his right knee as he dived to the feet of Felix, to grab the ball before Felix could take a shot. Satish was replaced by Francis Fernandes. It remained scoreless until the breather with Salgaocar unable to break the deadlook. After the breather it was Salgaocar midfielder Rocus Lamare who's shot went wide in the 56.minute. It was then the time of Dempo striker Ranty Martins Soleye to get into the action. In the 76.minute a curling freekick from Ranty was saved by Juje Siddi. And then in the 85.minute came the controversial penalty for Dempo as Salgaocar defender Prashant Jaggi tripped Ranty, but with none of the two in control of the ball. Salgaocar players showed their resentment against the decision of the referee and with Ranty not walking upto the spot to the penalty after he had missed a penalty in the match earlier against Fransa, it was winger Melvyn Rodrigues who took the penalty. And Juje Siddi turned the hero for Salgaocar as he saved the penalty.
DEMPO: VP Satish Kumar (25' Francis Fernandes), Valeriano Rebello (Pio Rodrigues), Majekodumni Bolaji (Raju Singh), Dominic Noronha, Melvyn Rodrigues, Clifford Miranda, Riston Rodrigues, Jose Colaco, Johnny D'Cruz, RC Prakash, Ranty Martins Soleye.
SALGAOCAR: Juje Siddi, Remus Gomes, Prashant Jaggi, John Charles Dias, Bello Rasaq, Jerose Oliveira, Micky Fernandes ( A Jyothi Kumar), Rocus Lamare, Francis Andrade, Samson Singh, Felix Ibrebru.
REFEREE: Walter Pereira (Maharashtra).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Juje Siddi (Salgaocar).

40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - Quarterfinal League Group B: Jharkhand 1-0 Karnataka - Goal: 1-0 Lalramluaha (22').
40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - Quarterfinal League Group B: Manipur 2-1 Uttaranchal - Goals: 1-0,2-0 Reisangmei Vasum (23',72'), 2-1 Tarun Gusain (75').

North East Sports Festival - Men's Football Final: Manipur 0-0,3-0 Meghalaya [penalties]
North East Sports Festival - Men's Football Third Place Playoff: Assam 3-0 Mizoram

Inter-Services Football Championship, New Delhi - Final: Indian Air Force 1-1,0-2 Army Red [extra-time]

NFL-Snippets:

Note-1: Former women's international S Kumari Devi from Manipur has been named as the Indian representative in the eight member AFC Women's committee and she has been asked to attend the 5th AFC Women's committee in Kuala Lumpur on March 20. The seven other members come from China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Bahrain and Qatar.
S Kumari Devi has another first to her name as she was a few weeks ago appointed as the first female member to the AIFF executive committee.

16. February
The latest FIFA rankings were released today by the world governing body. INDIA remain in 133rd position in the world and 25th in Asia with not much action in January 2005 around the world, there wasn't much movement in the rankings.
As INDIA will have no international engagements before June, when INDIA are said to tour Pakistan, the rankings could drop again due to inactivity.

9th National League - Goa: Churchill Brothers SC 2-1 Vasco SC - Goals: 0-1 Sidney Santana Rodrigues (9'), 1-1,2-1 Yakubu Yusif (28',39').
In a bottom of the table Goan derby Churchill Brothers SC came from behind to beat Vasco SC 2-1 in a 9th National League match at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. For Churchill Brothers it was their first win in this edition of the NFL, while for Vasco it was their fifth defeat. After seven matches, Churchill Bros now have five points, while Vasco only two with both teams remaining bottom of the NFL.
Vasco were awarded a penalty early on when striker K Aseem was brought down by Churchill's Ghanian defender Osumanu Husseini in the box. Brazilian midfielder Sidney Santana Rodrigues took the spotkick to shot Vasco into the lead in the 9.minute. But Vasco returned the favour of a penalty with Yakubu Yusif equalised in the 25.minute, after former Vasco player Brazilian Marcos Pereira was brought down by Sushanth Mathew. Churchill Brothers were then reduced to ten men in the 34.minute when keeper Mark Mascarenhas received his marching orders, after committing a foul on Vasco striker Anthony Pereira outside the box. Midfielder Roque Barreto had to be taken off to bring in substitute keeper Reagan Alemao. Then Yakubu Yusif scored his own and his teams second goal in the 39.minute to give Churchill Brothers the lead beating keeper Virender Singh. Satish Minz could have equalised for Vasco just before the breather, but his shot only hit the woodwork. Both teams had their chances to score more goals, but the keepers kept their charge clean in the second half.
It ended Churchill Brothers wait for their first win, while for Vasco the wait continues...
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Yakubu Yusif (Churchill).

9th National League - Calcutta: Mohun Bagan AC 1-1 State Bank of Travancore - Goals: 1-0 Mehtab Hussein (61'), 1-1 Asif Saheer (81').
Former champions Mohun Bagan AC were held to a one-all draw by promoted Kerala-side State Bank of Travancore in a 9th National League match at the Saltlake Stadium, Calcutta. Both teams have now played eight matches with Mohun Bagan on 11 points unable to reduce the gap on archrivals and league leaders East Bengal, while SBT are on 9 points staying out of the relegation spots.
SBT needed time to settle down on the big Saltlake stadium turf, to get a feeling of the size of pitch, to play their usual short-passing game, while leaving large gaps in midfield for Bagan to have their share of action. Renedy Singh made a good return to action for Bagan after having last played for them in the last NFL, working on the left side of the field. But Bagan were often denied by SBT keeper Harshal Rehman, who for his strong performance earned the "Man of the Match" afterwards.
The action intensified in the second half and the match could have gone either way. Bagan took the lead in the 61.minute, when a Renedy Singh corner was shot goalwards by substitute Jerry Zirsanga which Mehtab Hussein put into goal. Bagan could have earned a penalty only two minutes later when Ashim Biswas seemed to be brought down, but the referee thought otherwise. SBT now down by a goal went in search for the equaliser bringing in Asif Saheer and it was the short-statured striker who got the Bankmen the equaliser in the 81.minute. Saheer using his speed went into the Bagan box, made an attempt at goal, which Bagan's Brazilian defender Eduardo Coelho couldn't clear and it was 1-1. But SBT could have even walked away with the three points when attempts from Saheer and Abdul Hakkim hit the woodwork.
MOHUN BAGAN: Bibhas Ghosh, Dulal Biswas, Mehraj Din Wadoo, Eduardo Chacon Coelho Lacerda, Manas Das, Mehtab Hussein, Noel Wilson (51' Jerry Zirsanga), Dharamjit Singh, Renedy Singh (87' Basudeb Mondal), Ashim Biswas, Roberto Mendes Silva (37' Sunil Chetri).
SBT: PV Harshal Rehman, M Abdul Basheer, V Sivakumar, M Lanel Thomas, NP Pradeep, AB Kabeer, Mohammed Harris (72' Martyn John), KM Abdul Naushad, MA Abdul Hakkim, AG Mohammed Aslam (69' Asif Saheer), Ignatius Sylvester (39' M Mohammed Rafi).
REFEREE: Deepak Singh Bisht (Delhi).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: VP Harshal Rehman (SBT).

40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - Quarterfinal League Group A: Mizoram 0-0 West Bengal - Goals: none.
40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - Quarterfinal League Group A: Maharashtra 2-0 Tamil Nadu - Goals: 1-0,2-0 Karim Sheikh (12',51').

North East Sports Festival - Women's Football Final: Manipur 10-0 Nagaland
North East Sports Festival - Women's Football Third Place Playoff: Assam 1-0 Mizoram

Note-1: On Saturday, February 19 the Government of West Bengal along with the Siliguri Municipal Corporation would organise at the Kanchanjunga Stadium the auctioning of personal sports gear and memorablia from Indian football captain Baichung Bhutia, Cricket captain Saurav Ganguly and news Tennis sensation Sania Mirza. Due to prior commitments cricketer Rahul Dravid and Tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi will not be able to take part in the event.
The organisers hope to raise around Rs 4 million with the sports stars also to collect donations from the crowds.

15. February
9th National League - Calcutta: East Bengal Club 5-0 Tollygunge Agragami - Goals: 1-0 Shylo Malswam Tulunga (13'), 2-0 Climax Lawrence (53'), 3-0 Chandan Das (57'), 4-0,5-0 Baichung Bhutia (66',76').
In a one-sided affair champions East Bengal Club trashed Calcutta rivals Tollygunge Agragami 5-0 in a 9th National League match at the Saltlake Stadium, Calcutta. With their sixth win in a row East Bengal now are well positioned at the top of the league with 20 points from eight matches, while Tollygunge remain in the middle of the table even after their second heavy in this NFL with 10 points from as many matches.
Infront of an near empty Saltlake Stadium with the police saying that only around 10.000 spectators were at the ground, East Bengal coach Subhas Bhowmick fielded some of his fringe players to give them some needed match action and a complete Indian side, with all 11 players having an Indian passport, something one wouldn't expect from the champions, though later on two foreign strikers came on. Meanwhile Tollygunge missed some of the their key players - Nigerian defender Isiaka Awoyemi due to a double card booking and Ghanian Suley Musah and Dinesh Swar due to injury. And Tollygunge had to pay the price as the two Africans were missing in the centre of defence and defensive midfield with East Bengal utilising this especially in the second half.
East Bengal took the lead in the 13.minute when winger Shylo Malswam Tulunga headed in a Dipankar Roy cross from the left. But Tulunga had to taken off before the break with an injury and Nigerian striker Earnest Jeremiah came on for him.
The second half was much more lively and that especially due to a strong performance from East Bengal. The red-and-gold doubled the lead in the 53.minute through a header from Climax Lawrence of a Chandan Das corner. Then "Man of the Match" Chandan Das himself scored only four minutes later East Bengal's third. Chandan himself set-up the move with a pass to the left to Dipankar, who played it to Baichung, whose excellent pass found Chandan, who just had to tap the ball into the net. After setting-up a goal, Baichung himself got onto the score sheet with a double strike. Baichung scored his first goal in the 66.minute after getting past Tollygunge defender Debkumar Sashmal, he shot past keeper Sudip Sarkar. Ten minutes later Baichung got to a pass from Chandan and again scored past Sarkar with a firm shot. With his double strike today Baichung moved to the top of the scorers chart with six goals, but not only that, he also played another good match to prove his form and the potential he has.
EAST BENGAL: Sangram Mukherjee, Syed Rahim Nabi, Habibur Rehman Mondal, Debjit Ghosh, Selwyn Fernandes, Madhab Das, Shylo Malswam Tulunga (35' Earnest Jemeriah), Climax Lawrence (70' Juliano Martins), Chandan Das, Dipankar Roy (60' Bijen Singh), Baichung Bhutia.
TOLLYGUNGE: Sudip Sarkar, Kabijit Khotel, Debkumar Sashmal, Saumik Dey, Amitava Chanda, Chinmoy Sarkar, Suman Datta, Surajit Bose, Gouranga Datta, Tarif Ahmed (29' Suman Ghosh, 68' Santosh Singh), Akeem Abul Alem.
REFEREE: Benjamin D'Silva (Goa).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Chandan Das (East Bengal).

NFL-Snippets:

Note-1: As we have reported here at IndianFootball.Com, the 13th National Football Championships for Women will be held from February 20 to March 7, 2005 in Manipur. The 2005 edition would be organised by the All-Manipur Football Association under the aegis of the AIFF with a total budget of Rs. 2,2 million with upto Rs 1,3 million coming from the AIFF. The rest would have to be raised by the local organisers through gates and sponsorship. The AMFA hopes to raise upto Rs 600,000 through gates and has also asked the AIFF, if it could hold preliminary round matches outside Imphal in the districts of Thoubal, Kakching and Bishnupur. The answer from the AIFF was awaited. From the quarterfinal league upto the final the tournament would be held in Imphal. The tickets have been priced at Rs. 10 and 20 for the whole tournament.
In total 21 teams will be participating with Goa being the notable absentee. While the official reason from the GFA for non-participation is security fears, insiders say that the Santosh Tropyh 2002 semifinal between Manipur-Goa in Imphal is the real reason, where the security of the Goan team could not be guaranteed.
17 teams would play in the six group preliminary league with the six winners and the two best second placed teams making it to the quarterfinal league, where champions Manipur, runners-up West Bengal and the semifinalists Bihar and Kerala will be waiting.
GROUPINGS - Group A: Meghalaya, Delhi, Karnataka; Group B: Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim; Group C: Rajasthan, Orissa, Haryana; Group D: Uttaranchal, Maharashtra, Jharkhand; Group E: Jammu&Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Tripura; Group F: Chandigarh, Assam.
For the groups and schedules, go to >>13th Women National Championships

14. February
9th National League - Mumbai: Mahindra United 1-1 JCT Mills - Goals: 0-1 Harpreet Singh (16'), 1-1 Abhishek Yadav (18').
Mahindra United dropped two more points at home, after they could only draw 1-1 with JCT Mills, in a 9th National League match at the Cooperage Ground in Mumbai. This was United's second consecutive 1-1 home draw, against a team they were expected to have beaten. JCT meanwhile, would feel happy to have come away from Mumbai with a point, considering they had not scored a single goal in their last three matches.
The match was not much for a spectacle. There were long periods where neither team controlled the play, interspaced with a few short periods of effective constructive build-up. United probably had the better of the possession over the match's duration, but that would have been expected, for they wanted a win, while JCT would have taken a draw at the start.
United employed the same 5-3-2 system as in the previous match. The fit again Arun Malhotra replacing NS Manju in central defence, while Abhishek Yadav getting a start up front with Flavio suspended, were the only two personnel changes from their last match. JCT used the more standard 4-4-2 formation. Harpreet Singh and Julius Apkele as centre-backs, Jagjit Randhawa and Daljit Singh as the right and left full-backs repectively, were the four man defence. Sukhwinder Singh and Surjit Singh ran the centre of midfield, while Jaswinder on the right, and captain Ram Pal on the left, provided the width. Harvinder Singh and Manjit Singh were the striking duo.
Man of the Match Sukhwinder did well to break up Mahindra attacks in midfield. He also, with his energetic running, often rendered the dangerous Venkatesh ineffective. This despite JCT being outnumbered three to two in the centre of the park. This numerical inferiority though, could have been responsible for JCT being unable to create much going forward.
United's intentions for a victory were made clear in the 4.minute itself, as Brazilian Rodrigo had a shot at goal from distance, the first time he found himself in some space. JCT too were eager to get rid of their 'not-scoring bug', for Manjit tried a shot on goal from Sukhwinder's ball over the United defence, on 6 minutes. Abhishek was doing well to put pressure on the JCT defenders, whenever they had the ball. The match had begun at a quite hectic pace. Hence invariably the result was not much extended possession by either side, and quite a few passes going awry.
However, soon the match erupted into life, if only for those few minutes. On 15 minutes, a foul by Venkatesh on a JCT player on their left flank, allowed JCT the opportunity to get in a dangerous ball into the box from the set-piece. Ram Pal duly obliged, sending in a lovely left-footed cross, swinging away from goalkeeper Sandip Nandy. This caused confusion in the United box, and when subsequently the ball was again crossed in, Nandy misjudged the flight, with two JCT players in close attendance. Harpreet was the lucky one to whom the ball fell, and he made no mistake scoring. 1-0 to JCT, with 16 minutes gone. JCT, much to their delight, had finally scored in the league again. But, as in their previous match, United responded almost instantaneously. On 18 minutes, following a counter-attack, United earned a corner-kick. Bisht's flat accurate cross into the box was met by a thumping header from Abhishek, who used his height and strength well to meet the ball, and score. 1-1 the score.
United were now looking to dominate the game, and try to score the winner. But they could not. JCT looked threatening from set-pieces, and throw-in's, as they were not averse to sending Harpreet in the United box to try and cause a nuisance for the United defence, as he had done so for the goal already scored. The best build-up of the match thus far, came in the 27th minute, when Koluthungan's clever dummy, was followed by a pass to Rodrigo, who released Abhishek down the right flank. Abhishek's low final ball into the box, though, was intercepted before it reached Venkatesh. United, on their corner-kicks, had everyone of their big men in the JCT box. JCT were thus finding it difficult to deal with these United corners, and were lucky not to concede further from them. Bisht worked the JCT goalkeeper, Mansuru, with a nice shot on target from outside the box, after good work from the impressive Surkumar had led to the opportunity. Surkumar was showing great work-rate, and winning most fifty-fifty tackles. More importantly, he did not allow Ram Pal much room, whenever the JCT captain tried to attack. United never looked in much danger of conceding a second from open-play atleast, with the ever impressive Covan Lawrence exemplifying no-nonsense defending.
The second half was quite a dull affair. The play was often disjointed, with rarely much flow to it. Unsurprisingly, United created the only few clear-cut opportunities. The first came in the 56.minute. Rodrigo, after a nice run down the left, pulled the ball back in the box for Koluthungan. He created some room for himself, and shot at goal, but Mansuru made the save. The shot following the rebound was also spectacularly saved by the JCT goalkeeper, after the ball had fallen to Rodrigo, who had the goal at his mercy. The next howler by Rodrigo, drew some flak from the disappointed crowd. On 73 minutes, after Steven Dias put a ball across the box, following good work along the right by-line, Rodrigo somehow conspired to miss-kick the ball over the bar, from the 6-yard box, when it would have been easier to score. Rodrigo would have further regretted those two missed chances, had Sukhwinder's promising long-range effort, a few minutes later, found the target. The last chance for United was on 85 minutes, when substitute Khalid Jamil's low shot rattled off the near-post. Jamil had himself initiated the move. The ball was worked, for once, in midfield, and then to the right, where Steven found space for a pull-back in the box, only for Jamil's effort to hit the post and go wide, with Mansuru beaten.
Thus, Mahindra United wasted another opportunity to close the gap on the league leaders. The aspiring title-contenders definitely need to do better, atleast on the attacking front.
MAHINDRA: Sandip Nandy, Surkumar Singh (70' Steven Dias), Arun Malhotra, Covan Lawrence (80' Manju Nanjangud Shivananju), Shanmugam Venkatesh, Kalia Koluthungan, Jatin Singh Bisht, Debabrata Roy, Rodrigo Calisto de Almeida (76' Khalid Jamil), Abhishek Yadav.
JCT: Mansuru Mohammed, Jagjit Singh Randhawa, Harpreet Singh, Julius Irabor Akpele, Daljit Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Surjit Singh (63' Baldeep Singh), Ram Pal, Harvinder Singh (46' Hardip Singh Gill, 82' Charanjit Kumar), Manjit Singh.
REFEREE: P Bhaskar (Tamil Nadu).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Sukhwinder Singh (JCT).

Note-1: The AIFF today released the schedule for the four pending 9th NFL matches of Sporting Clube de Goa and on the request of the IFA has rescheduled the Round 9 Mohun Bagan-Tollygunge Agragami match from the original date of February 19 due to Muharram being celebrated on that day. All the matches have been scheduled for March 2005.
March 5: Mahindra United - Sporting Clube de Goa
March 6: Mohun Bagan AC - Tollygunge Agragami
March 9: Sporting Clube de Goa - Churchill Brothers SC
March 13: Vasco SC - Sporting Clube de Goa
March 16: Dempo SC - Sporting Clube de Goa

Note-2: Shabbir Ali is still the coach of Churchill Brothers SC and has not resigned as reports suggested from Calicut yesterday. But Shabbir has taken a weeks leave from the club to visit his ailing wife in his hometown of Hyderabad and he would be back in Goa on February 21.
Shabbir had talked with the Churchill Brothers management about his situation and asked for a weeks leave as in his current state of mind, he could not lead the team and the club agreed to his request. But Shabbir wanted to be back as he wanted to help the club stay in the NFL.

13. February
9th National League - Goa: Fransa FC 1-4 Sporting Clube de Goa - Goals: 0-1,0-2,0-3 MacPherlin Dudu Omagbemi (24',53',58'), 1-3 Santa Saikhom Singh (78'), 1-4 Nicholas L Rodrigues (89').
High-flying Fransa FC were brought down crashing to earth by Goan rivals Sporting Clube de Goa with a 4-1 drubbing by the injury-hit Sporting Clube, who marked their return to action after a forced layoff in style in the 9th National League at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. Fransa FC couldn't close the gap on league leaders East Bengal and remain on 13 points from eight matches, while Sporting Clube only playing their fourth match now have seven points.
Sporting Clube were lead by the hattrick of captain MacPherlin Dudu Omagbemi, while Fransa missed dependable defender Louis Aniweta due to a double booking which severely weakened the defence.
Sporting Clube took the lead in the 24.minute when Fransa defender Anbalath Suliman Firoze tried to clear a Nicolas Borges pass, which landed with Dudu who made no mistake to score. After the breather Peter Costa brought down Dudu in the Fransa penalty area, with Dudu himself scoring of the penalty in the 53.minute. Only five minutes later Dudu completed his hattrick with a brilliant side volley off a pass from Chidi Edeh. Fransa scored their consolation goal in the 78.minute off Santa Saikhom Singh's shot, but the match was out of their hands by then and Sporting Clube completed the match with a fourth goal from Nicholas L Rodrigues a minute from time.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: MacPherlin Dudu Omagbemi (Sporting Clube)

53rd BN Mullick Police Cup - Final: Punjab Police 1-2 Border Security Force - Goals: 1-0 Parminder Singh (32'), 1-1 Santosh Kujur (48'), 2-1 Gurjit Singh Atwal (72').
53rd BN Mullick Police Cup - Third Place Playoff: Nagaland Police 2-1 Assam Rifles

U17 National School Games Football Championship, Jammu; J&K - Final: Punjab 2-1 Manipur

Note-1: Last night after their fourth defeat in six matches, Churchill Brothers SC coach Shabbir Ali resigned from his head coach position.
"I have decided to quit as the team is unable to produce results under my coaching even after six rounds in the National Football League," a dejected Shabbir told reporters in Calicut last night after his team was thrashed 3-1 by State Bank of Travancore.
Shabbir Ali who had joined Churchill Brothers in the middle of the Goa Pro League campaign last year after having been sacked by Fransa FC, claimed that he couldn't reach the team and get them to perform as to why he resigned.
Meanwhile in Goa, the Churchill Brothers management had received no information from the coach that he had resigned and would only comment on the future situation, when the team returns from Kerala.

12. February
India's tennis sensation Sania Mirza has won her first-ever WTA-Tour Tennis tournament today! The 18-year old Sania clinched her first title at the WTA Indian Open at home in Hyderabad, while defeating Ukranian Alyona Bondarenko 6-4,5-7,6-3.
Her dream run since the Australian Open third round encounter with Serena Williams continues. She trounced fourth-seeded Jie Zheng of China in the second round, Tzipora Obziler of Israel in the quarterfinal and Russian Maria Kirilenko 6-4 7-6 to reach the singles finals.

9th National League - Calicut: State Bank of Travancore 3-1 Churchill Brothers SC - Goals: 1-0,2-0 MA Abdul Hakkim (48',67'), 2-1 Yakubu Yusif (75'), 3-1 KM Abdul Naushad (80').
State Bank of Travancore returned to winning ways infront of a capacity crowd at the Calicut Corporation Municipal Stadium with a 3-1 victory against Goans Churchill Brothers SC in a 9th National League match. SBT moved out of the relegation spots with now eight points from seven matches, while Churchill Brothers remain in a dangerous position with just two points from six matches.
Churchill Brothers coach Shabbir Ali risked to play with an offensive outfit with an attack consisting of seasoned IM Vijayan, Brazilian Marcos Pereira and Ghanian sharpshooter Yakubu Yusif. It looked to payoff as initially Churchill Bros were the more dangerous of the two sides, but Yakubu and Marcos both missed chances. SBT needed time to settle down and coach Najeeb made two changes to the side in quick succession to strengthen the defence and attack bringing in NP Pradeep for Shabir Ali and then taking off KS Joby for striker Mohammed Rafi. Winger Abdul Hakkim could have given SBT the lead before the breather, but he messed-up a chance which Abdul Naushad had set-up for him. But in the 48.minute Hakkim made-up for his earlier miss to give SBT the lead. In the 67.minute it was again Hakkim who doubled the lead for SBT with a side-volley off a pass from Mohammed Rafi. SBT seemed too sure of the victory and they allowed Churchill Bros back into the match, when in the 75.minute Yakubu Yusif reduced the margin of a pass from IM Vijayan. Churchill Bros were now pressing for the equaliser, but it took SBT only six minutes to ensure the win with a counter attack which Sylvester Ignatius carried forward and he then played the ball to Abdul Naushad who volleyed the ball into the net and gave the crowd something to cheer.
SBT: PV Harshal Rehman, M Abdul Basheer, V Sivakumar, Paul Anthony, KS Joby (M Mohammed Rafi), T Shabir Ali (NP Pradeep), AB Kabeer, KM Abdul Naushad, MA Abdul Hakkim, AG Mohammed Aslam, Sylvester Ignatius.
CHURCHILL: Mark Mascarenhas, Ryan D'Souza, Osumanu Husseini, Satish Kumar Bharti, Subhashish Roy Chowdhury, Vanlal Rova, Chitrasen Chandam Singh, Marcos Pereira, Godwin Diego Franco, IM Vijayan, Yakubu Yusif.
REFEREE: Manuel Pereira (Maharashtra).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: MA Abdul Hakkim (SBT).

9th National League - Calcutta: East Bengal Club 1-0 Salgaocar SC - Goal: 1-0 Baichung Bhutia (81').
Champions East Bengal Club rode on a brilliant goal of India captain Baichung Bhutia to beat former champions Salgaocar SC in a 9th National League match at the Saltlake Stadium, Calcutta. With the win today East Bengal have won five matches in a row and now have 17 points from seven matches to sit pretty at the top of the NFL. Salgaocar meanwhile remain just above the relegation spots on seven points from seven matches.
Salgaocar had some good chances early on in the match with Samson Singh having the best in the 13.minute. Samson got his chance through some bad defending from East Bengal, but his overhead back-volley was saved by keeper Rajat Ghosh Dastidar. Once again poor supervision in the NFL by the referee Deepak Dey from Assam helped the champions, as Salgaocar were denied three penalties. First Suresh brought down Bernard Pires in the area just before the breather, then in the 60.minute Syed Rahim Nabi handled the ball, and only a few minutes later Jerose Oliveira was brought down by Sasthi Duley. In none of the situations the referee blew the whistle. The winner came in the 81.minute for East Bengal off a Habibur Rehman Mondal throw-in which was back-headed by Douglas da Silva and Baichung acrobatically side-volleyed the ball into the goal before the Salgaocar defence could react.
For East Bengal these were three vital points in their quest to win the NFL title for the third time back-to-back and afterwards no one will ask how they won, just the 1-0 will remain.
EAST BENGAL: Rajat Ghosh Dastidar, Syed Rahim Nabi, Selwyn Fernandes, Muttath Suresh, Douglas da Silva, Sasthi Duley (69' Habibur Rehman Mondal), Earnest Jeremiah (25' Climax Lawrence), Chandan Das, Alvito D'Cunha, Juliano Martins (46' Shylo Malswam Tulunga), Baichung Bhutia.
SALGAOCAR: Juje Siddi, Remus Gomes, Prashant Jaggi, John Charles Dias, Bello Rasaq, Jerose Oliveira (89' Raghuveer Singh), Rocus Lamare, Bernard Pires, Francis Andrade (58' A Jyothi Kumar), Felix Ibrebru, Samson Singh (68' Micky Fernandes).
REFEREE: Deepak Kumar Dey (Assam).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Baichung Bhutia (East Bengal).

53rd BN Mullick Police Cup - Semifinal: Punjab Police 3-1 Assam Rifles
53rd BN Mullick Police Cup - Semifinal: Border Security Force 4-0 Nagaland Police

Note-1: After confirmed reports came from Brazil that Dempo's Brazilian striker Cristiano Junior died of a heart attack and not due to contact with Mohun Bagan goalkeeper Subrata Pal, Pal's club wanted the AIFF to lift the ban. So the AIFF's appeal committee comprising of Vijay Panjwani, AIFF legal expert and Supreme Court advocate; and NK Bhatia, Delhi SA secretary, met in Delhi today to discuss the issue with the third member RK Anand absent due to personal commitments. Mohun Bagan were represented by RK Bharadwaj. With not documents being presented a further hearing will be held on February 18.
The committee met today to view the crucial clippings of the Federation Cup final on December 5, 2004. As was clear for the committee that Pal's aggressive charge towards Cristiano could not be tolerated, the punishment was rather for the action then the resultant death, which has now been proven to not have been his fault.
The Bagan representative was asked to further furnish evidence about punishment handed out by the club to Pal for other misconduct by Pal in the Durand Cup semifinal and final in Delhi in November 2004. Bharadwaj replied that Pal had been fined a month's salary by his club, but was asked to prove this in writing.

Note-2: Tomorrow will mark the return to action for Sporting Clube de Goa in the NFL with a Goan derby against Fransa FC after their accident in Calcutta on January 26. Sporting Clube have missed four NFL rounds after having a mixed start with a win, a draw and a loss. And the team will miss nearly a complete playing eleven for the match. Likely out for the complete NFL are Peter Pereira, Joseph Pereira, Ajay Diwadkar, Sandeep Colaco and John Barreto. Also missing tomorrow's tie are defenders CK Jiteesh and N Rajesh Meetei. So it will be tricky tie for Sporting Clube with a new first-eleven.

Note-3: After building links with the IFA (Bengal body) in the men's game, India's neighbour Myanmar is now building links with Manipur for the women's game in their country. In March a Manipur Women's team would play two matches against the Myanmar Women's team in Yangoon and Mandalay, while thereafter Manipur would like to host the Myanmar team in Imphal.

11. February
9th National League - Mumbai: Mahindra United 1-1 Tollygunge Agragami - Goals: 0-1 Surajit Bose (8'), 1-1 Rodrigo Calisto de Almeida (10').
Both Mahindra United of Mumbai and Calcutta's Tollygunge Agragami, remained in their positions of fourth and sixth respectively, in the 9th National League, after their match at the Cooperage Ground in Mumbai ended 1-1.
If the result were to have been decided on the basis of possession and control of play, then United would have been awarded the victory hands down. But unfortunately for them, they were unable to convert their footballing superiority into goals. For in the end, it is the score that matters.
United attacked, and attacked, and attacked. And, most of their attacks were through their talismanic captain, Shanmugam Venkatesh, who played like a man possessed, truly inspirational in most of United's build up play. His selection for man-of-the-match was a no-brainer. How gladly he would have swapped that much deserved prize for the game-winning goal, that his side ought to have got.
United continued with their policy of using three centre-backs, supported by wing-backs. Jatin Singh Bisht and Kalia Koluthungan ran the midfield, distributing the ball for United's attacks. Venkatesh pushed forward from midfield whenever possible, always looking a threat for the Tollygunge defence. The two Brazilians, Flavio and Rodrigo, again, formed the striking duo.
Tollygunge on the other hand, who incidentally are the leagues' draw specialists thus far, set up quite defensively. A flat-back four was employed to deal with United's attackers. Two defensive midfielders were placed in front of them to provide additional cover. Chinmoy Sarkar on the right, and Gouranga Datta on the left, were to attack down the respective wings. Akeem Abul Alem was left up-front as the lone striker, while the ever-deadly Surajit Bose played behind him, supporting both him, and the midfield, whenever required.
The action was frantic right from the get-go. Within 20 seconds, Flavio had attempted a shot on goal, after all the space he had been afforded. Inside 2 minutes, Venkatesh made his first of many influential passes, finding Flavio with a through ball, but his subsequent pull-back inside the box was intercepted in the nick of time by the Tolly' defence. Flavio was once again looking impressive.
On 8 minutes, Tolly', with their first effective build-up play, created a goal. An impressive move that. Almost the entire midfield was involved in the build-up. The ball was swiftly passed from the middle, to the left, and then cross-field to the right. With the United defence stretched by this quick ball movement, Akeem's well floated ball into the box from the right flank, was gently volleyed in by Surajit, whose timing of his run into the box to meet the cross was immaculate. 1-0 to Tollygunge, and the Cooperage crowd appreciated the slick build-up that led to the goal.
Within 2 minutes however, United had found the equalizer. Tolly' had no time to settle down on their lead. Bisht's in-swinging free-kick from the right, reached Rodrigo, who made no mistake in putting the ball in the back of the net. In fact, the Tolly' defence went to sleep, appealing instead for offside, leaving three United players unmarked in the 6-yard box. Somebody was bound to score, but Rodrigo did so himself. 1-1, with 10 minutes gone. Quite a lively start.
Within 11 minutes, referee Shankar had booked three Tolly' players. Probably he wanted to let the players know from the start that he wanted a clean football match. Surprisingly, subsequently, no one seemed to have been booked.
After the equalizer, Tolly' decided to sit deep, probably wary of the Brazilians' runs in behind them and their ability to dribble. This meant Bisht and Koluthungan got time and room to move the ball around, which they both used to good effect more often than not.
A well worked short-corner by United on 20 minutes, again got the better of Tolly's offside trap, following which Flavio unfortunately conspired to put the ball wide of goal.
Akeem was doing well to hold the ball up, whenever it reached him, but then he rarely got adequate support from his midfield. The wide players for Tolly' often stayed wide, while Debkumar Sashmal and Suman Datta rarely ventured that far forward to help him. Mostly, it was left to Surajit to link up however he could. Consequently, Tolly' invariably ended up giving possession back to United more often than not.
Rodrigo was visibly doing more than what he did in previous matches, and seemed more interested to get involved in United's build-up play in this match.
United were looking much the more imaginative and penetrative, and were using their width well, to further stretch the Tolly' defence. One such move occurred in the 29th minute, when Koluthungan's cross-field ball, well taken down by Venkatesh, subsequently given to Rodrigo, who managed to create space and lay it on for the incoming Surkumar Singh, whose left-footed curling effort from outside the box, just grazed the cross-bar.
Moreover, the United centre-backs were keeping tight on Akeem, who's resulting frustrations even led him to appealing for some help in this regard from the referee.
However, Tolly' did manage to create one further good chance. On 39 minutes, Gouranga's good work down the Tolly' left resulted in the ball deflecting onto Saumik's path in the penalty box. But the left-fullback was unable to beat the onrushing Sandip Nandy, whose low dive saved a certain goal.
In the second half, United had virtually all of the possession, as Tolly' seemed happy to go back home with the draw. Moreover, Venkatesh was at the heart of almost every United attack. He either did the creating, or had the final chance, but was always involved. Rodrigo, who too was trying to link up more, and had scored a goal, thus seemed a bit disappointed when he was substituted. But United should probably look upon this is a positive, for it means that Rodrigo does have a bit of hunger and desire to play on.
Towards the last 20 minutes, Amitava Chanda, on for Chinmoy Sarkar, spent more time in his own half, trying to cope with the overlapping Debabrata Roy, than try to attack in United's half. United, desperate for the winner they so desired, were virtually encamped in the Tolly' half for the whole of the second period, at times almost playing a 3-4-3. But they did not manage to create that clear-cut opportunity for their elusive goal, and Tollygunge survived, somehow.
With Venkatesh proving so influential, it was a bit surprising that Tolly' did not mark him man-to-man, more so as Venkatesh mostly tended to attack from the left, and did not wander about the pitch that much. Maybe the next team to play United will do so. However, for all of Venkatesh's brilliance, Mahindra United were unable to score the winner. And that was what mattered in the end.
MAHINDRA: Sandip Nandy, Surkumar Singh (78' Steven Dias), Covan Lawrence, Manju Nanjangud Shivananju, Peter Siddique, Kalia Kulothungan (89' Khalid Siddique), Shanmugam Venkatesh, Jatin Singh Bisht, Debabrata Roy, Rodrigo Calisto de Almeida, Flavio de Oliveira Rodrigues (61' Abhishek Yadav).
TOLLYGUNGE: Arindam Ghosh (69' Sudip Sarkar), Kabijit Khotel, Isiaka Awoyemi, Debkumar Sashmal, Saumik Dey, Gouranga Datta, Suley Musah, Suman Datta, Chinmoy Sarkar (65' Amitava Chanda), Surajit Bose (79' Tarif Ahmed), Akeem Abul Alem.
REFEREE: Komaleeswaran Shankar (Tamil Nadu).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Shanmugam Venkatesh (Mahindra).

Note-1: Calicut (now called Kozhikode) will host it's third 9th NFL match tomorrow between local Kerala side State Bank of Travancore and Goans Churchill Brothers SC. The local organising committee, the Kozhikode DFA, is expecting a capacity crowd of 35.000 spectators as the match sees the return of Kerala's own footballing hero IM Vijayan to his home state to play after a few years. The first two matches have been a complete success for the KDFA with crowds of more than 65.000 having been to the matches and more than Rs 1,2 million raised from the matches.
While SBT hope to return to winning ways, Churchill hope to finally win their first match of this campaign. So the fans can look forward to an interesting match.

10. February
Some have been asking us for infos on how the Tsunami charity event "Mahanagar Lounge" in Cologne on February 5, 2005 went. All I can say at the moment is that it was a grand success and IndianFootball.Com along with theInder.net and Whatyaat will soon announce the official figure of money raised and also give you further infos on the event.

Note-1: The FIFA/UEFA Tsunami Charity match 'Football for Hope' on February 15, 2005 at the Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain will be telecast exclusively by Zee Telefilms across south Asia - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. In India the match will be telecast live by ZEE TV and Alpha Bangla at 01.15 h on February 16.
All proceeds from the "Football for Hope" match will be donated to the FIFA/AFC Tsunami Solidarity Fund, which has been set up jointly by FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation. Spanish giants CF Barcelona has made its home stadium available for the event free of charge.
The match will see some of the biggest stars of world football, who play their club game in Europe. The world side will be captained by FIFA World Player of the Year 2004 Ronaldinho and will be coached by Carlos Alberto Pareira (Brazil national coach) and Frank Rijkaard (Dutch, coach of CF Barcelona). The European select side will have European Footballer of the Year 2004 Andriy Shevchenko as captain with Marcello Lippi (Italy national coach) and Arsene Wenger (French, Arsenal London coach) will be the coaches. Amongst the stars to be seen in action will be Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Michael Ballack, Raul, Thierry Henry, Steven Gerrard, Alessandro del Piero and many more.

9. February
9th National League - Calcutta: Mohun Bagan AC 0-1 JCT Mills - Goal: 1-0 Ashim Biswas (16').
In a match between former NFL champions, Mohun Bagan AC prevailed over JCT Mills by a lone goal in a 9th National League match at the Saltlake Stadium, Calcutta. After seven matches Mohun Bagan are now on 10 points while JCT remain on seven.
Mohun Bagan wanted to get back to winning ways after two losses against Goan sides Dempo and Fransa. They started aggresively and went into the attack, while JCT took a wait and watch approach. The Bagan midfield was marshalled by Noel Wilson, back into his usual position, after the defence saw the return of Brazilian Eduardo Coelho and the debut of Nigerian stopper Ajibade Babalade. It was Noel who set-up the winner, though he maybe would have liked to have scored himself. In the 16.minute Noel's shot hit the crossbar, came back into play for India international striker Ashim Biswas to head the lose ball past keeper Mansuru Mohammed into the net for his first goal of this NFL. Thereafter Bagan tried to double the lead but attempts by Roberto Mendes Silva and Mehtab Hussein were wasted. The Bagan defence had things under their control, but that due to the strong performance of Eduardo, while newcomer Babalade didn't look match fit and had to be substituteed for an injury. Though their attack was close to non-existant JCT could have gone home to Phagwara with a point, had not seasoned Ram Pal missed an open goal with the ball flying high over the crossbar after he received the ball from substitute Jaswinder Singh.
MOHUN BAGAN: Bibhas Ghosh, Dulal Biswas, Eduardo Chacon Coelho Lacerda, Ajibade Babalade (72' Mehraj Din Wadoo), Manas Das, Mehtab Hussein, Basudeb Mondal (66' Sunil Chetri), Noel Wilson, Dharamjit Singh (61' Jerry Zirsanga), Ashim Biswas, Roberto Mendes Silva.
JCT: Mansuru Mohammed, Daljit Singh, Harpreet Singh, Julius Irabor Akpele, KV Dhanesh, Baldeep Singh (24' Jaswinder Singh), Sukhwinder Singh (68' Charanjit Kumar), Ram Pal, Surjit Singh, Harvinder Singh (46' Manjit Singh), Hardip Singh Gill.
REFEREE: Rizwan ul-Haq (Delhi).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Noel Wilson (Mohun Bagan).

9th National League - Goa: Dempo SC 0-1 Fransa FC - Goal: 0-1 Sebastiao Endro (70').
Title contenders Dempo SC suffered a surprise lone goal defeat at the hands of promoted Goan rivals Fransa FC in the 9th National League at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. It was the first defeat of the season for Dempo on the national scene, but against Fransa they had lost their opening match in the Goa Pro League in August. Both teams now have 13 points and a goal difference of +4, but as Fransa have scored more goals they are ahead of Dempo, but Fransa has played seven matches, while Dempo has a match in hand.
Dempo controlled the match with their midfield working hard and created numerous chances for their strikers RC Prakash and Nigerian Ranty Martins Soleye, but the often were denied by an inform Kalyan Chaubey in the Fransa goal. For another rock solid performance in goal, Kalyan got the "Man of the Match" award after the match. Dempo's best chance came in the 58.minute through a penalty, but Ranty's shot was saved by Kalyan, after AS Firoze had brought down RC Prakash. The winner for Fransa, their only real chance of the match, came in the 70.minute when defender Cressan Antao played a long ball which striker Sebastiao Endro headed over Dempo keeper Satish Kumar.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Kalyan Chaubey (Fransa).

40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - NorthEast Zone Qualifiers: Assam 3-0 Tripura

Note-1: The 13th Women National Championships will be held in Manipur from February 20 with 17 states with the AMFA forming an organising committee headed by the Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh and other sub-committees.
Hosts and defending champions along with last year finalist West Bengal and semifinalists Bihar and Kerala have been seeded into the quarterfinal league, while the other teams would try to qualify for those. As has been reported earlier, Goa is said to have pulled their team out due to security reasons.

Note-2: The Tata Football Academy will be hosting a Tsunami Charity match on February 26 in Jamshedpur at the JRD Tata Sports Complex Stadium. TFA would take on Calcutta giants Mohammedan Sporting Club with some former TFA cadets likely to be seen in action in Jamshedpur for the academy where they started their football careers. The gate collections from the match will go into the Tsunami relief fund.
So if you happen to be in Jamshedpur on February 26, then go to the match and help raise money for the Tsunami victims.
A great cause and TFA has the full support from IndianFootball.Com!

Note-3: Salgaocar SC secretary Henry Britto has alleged that Brazilian striker Marcos Pereira used "unfair methods" as they called it to get released.
"Marcos quit Salgaocar just before the start of the National Football League (NFL) citing serious domestic problems and had left Goa with full dues paid under the pretext of going back to his home in Brazil," Britto claimed.
Britto further added, "However, Marcos, who otherwise had a contractual commitment with Salgaocar till April 30, 2006 went to Vietnam to attend selection trials for a local club, which was a shocking revelation to us."
So Marcos who had left Salgaocar a few weeks back, never went to Brazil as he claimed he would, but went for trials in Vietnam, which were not successful and then returned to Goa. In Goa he didn't rejoin Salgaocar, but went to train with Churchill Brothers, for whom he is now playing on loan from Salgaocar. In the interest of the player Salgaocar didn't obstruct the loan transfer.

8. February
9th National League - Goa: Churchill Brothers SC 1-1 Salgaocar SC - Goals: 1-0 Marcos Pereira (5'), 1-1 Felix Ibrebru (60').
The Goan derby between Churchill Brothers SC and Salgaocar SC in the 9th National League ended all squared with a one-all draw at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. Churchill Brothers remain winless after five matches and have only two points on their account, while Salgaocar now have seven points from six matches.
Derby's between Churchill Brothers and Salgaocar are often interesting and tension filled matches, but today's match had an additional bit of controversy to it as Brazilian Marcos Pereira marked his return to Goa by playing on loan for Churchill Brothers against his former club Salgaocar, whom he left under suspect circumstances and the story is still not cent percent solved.
Marcos made his return a successful one only five minutes into the match, when he scored of a freekick and he had a good day on the pitch, but his striking partner upfront Yakubu Yusif did not have such a good day. Churchill were also hampered by the early injury to Bungo Singh, who was replaced by veteran IM Vijayan. Both sides had their chances but it was Salgaocar who equalised on the hour mark, when Samson Singh snatched the ball from Churchill defender Subhashish Roy Chowdhury found a free Felix Ibrebru who scored past keeper Mark Mascarenhas. Both sides could have won the match, but late chances were wasted or the teams were denied by the keepers.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Felix Ibrebru (Salgaocar).

U13 Football Festival - Winners Final: West Bengal 2-1 Mizoram - West Bengal first-ever U13 National champions!
U13 Football Festival - Runners-Up Final: Uttar Pradesh 1-1,11-10 Haryana [penalties]

40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - NorthEast Zone Qualifiers: Assam 3-0 Arunachal Pradesh

Note-1: On the sidelines of the finals of the first-ever U13 Nationals in Kalyani, outside Calcutta the AIFF president Das Munshi made some statements on a number of issues. Here a list of those statements.

Note-2: Sporting Clube de Goa's NFL Round 7 match against Vasco SC on February 10, 2005 in Goa has been postponed by the AIFF due to a request made by Sporting Clube.

Note-3: East Bengal Club coach Subhas Bhowmick has send his reply to the AIFF showcause notice send to him on his behaviour and threath to pull out his team from the 9th National League on the opening day of the league. In his reply Bhowmick states that he never threathened to pull out of the league as he wanted to retain the title with his team.

Note-4: In the end Viva Kerala couldn't pull it off. Viva Kerala lost the penalty shootout 3-5 against Kerala State Electricity Board in the final of the Alukka's Gold Cup after the match had ended goalless.
Viva Kerala, fielding a bunch of Under-20 players, dominated the match through out against the experienced KSEB, who played a defensive game. Viva created no fewer than four scoring chances and even missed a penalty kick in the second half. In the penalty shootout, KSEB converted all their chances while Mohammed Rashid hit the upright to hand victory to KSEB.
Viva's captain Dhanaraj was adjudged the best player of the tournament and A. Zackariah the most popular player, while Anil Kumar of KSEB was the top scorer of the tournament with a tally of five goals.

Note-5: For the Jharkhand FA is was an embarassing news, when they heard that their U13 state team was debarred from taking part in the first U13 Nationals as five players of the 16 member squad were found overage. The squad was mainly of boys from Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Giridih and Chakradharpur and the ad-hoc planning backfired as no proper trials or selections were made and the documents produced by the boys were believed by the officials, be it certificates from schools or municipal bodies. For the young state of Jharkhand it was the first time that a football team had been send home.
The JFA is reacting to the events by first of all constituting a medical panel to verify the ages of the footballers and then the future course of action would be dealt with.

Note-6: The Assam FA wants to develop the game at the grassroot level, but the FA is facing problems to do on it's own, they want corporates to come in and help them with their quest to enable youngsters to be groomed properly.
With the news out that the Williamson Magor Football Academy will close down, Assam is left with only Academy with the Silchar Football Academy. Now the AFA has approached Oil India Limited, one of Assam's best club sides and also one of the largest corporates in the state, to start an own Academy at their base in Duliajan.

7. February
9th National League - Goa: Vasco SC 2-3 Mahindra United - Goals: 0-1,2-2 Jatin Singh Bisht (43',70'), 1-1,2-1 Sidney Santana Rodrigues (45+1',57'), 2-3 Kalia Kulothungan (90+3').
Mahindra United needed an injury time goal to win 3-2 away to Vasco SC in Goa in a 9th National League match at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. Mahindra United now have 10 points from five matches to move into the top four, while Vasco have only two points from six matches to remain on a relegation spot.
Luck seems to have deserted Vasco SC, though they scored their first goals in their sixth 9th NFL tie, they conceeded more goals than they scored and lost once more. Their fourth defeat in six matches. Meanwhile Mahindra were lucky to win, as they couldn't have said anything had they lost the match, but a big team also needs luck to win matches and they had it today.
Vasco controlled the match in the first half, but it was Mahindra who took the lead through Jatin Singh Bisht in the 43.minute when the midfielder found open space in the middle he ran forward to get a pass from Brazilian Flavio de Oliveira Rodrigues. But Vasco equalised a minute into injury time when Brazilian Sidney Santana Rodrigues scored off a freekick. And after the breather in the 57.minute Sidney even shot Vasco into the lead with a 20 metre effort past Mahindra keeper Sandip Nandy. Mahindra then suddenly showed urgency to equalise and it was again Jatin Singh Bisht who got onto the scorecard in the 70.minute with a long-range effort past the outstreched hands of Vasco keeper Rogerio Ramos. And when the match seemed headed for a draw, the final nail onto the Vasco coffin came very late in the match, in the third minute of injury time with substitute Kalia Kulothungan scoring with another long-range effort.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Sidney Santana Rodrigues (Vasco).

U13 Football Festival - Winners Semifinal: West Bengal 5-0 Chandigarh
U13 Football Festival - Winners Semifinal: Mizoram 5-1 Punjab
U13 Football Festival - Runners-Up Semifinal: Haryana 3-0 Tamil Nadu
U13 Football Festival - Runners-Up Semifinal: Uttar Pradesh 6-1 Orissa

40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - NorthEast Zone Qualifiers: Manipur 3-0 Tripura

Note-1: The AIFF has cleared Sporting Clube de Goa's request to recruit four new players on loan for the remainder of the 9th NFL taking into consideration that six of their players are likely to be out for the remainder of the NFL due to the bus accident in Calcutta on January 26.
The AIFF executive committee was consulted in the issue and the AIFF had set itself a deadline until 17.00 h today. It had been known for a couple of days that the AIFF vice-president and IFA secretary Subrata Dutta had given his okay on the issue.
Sporting Clube has been allowed to take four players on loan from Goa or any other state in India, even if any of the injured players return to the squad before the end of the NFL. And Sporting Clube are already scouting for replacements and four players have been called for trials. Lalkamal Bhowmick and Bhiman Sinha from SAIL, Calcutta; N Samananda Singh from Eastern Sporting Union, Manipur; and Poibyong from Meghalaya. Also the club is trying to bring back defender Akshay Das, who is currently with East Bengal but not part of their NFL squad.
If Sporting Clube can play on Thursday against Vasco SC is unsure at the moment as the club is having problems to put together a team, but they are sure to play on Sunday against Fransa FC.

Note-2: The GFA and the Goan clubs cannot be happy with the crowd attendences for 9th NFL matches in Goa. Crowds of over 10,000 people are a rarity and that is mainly due to the fact that the tiny state of Goa boasts of six of the 12 participating NFL teams, splitting the supporter base.
The GFA now wants to change this for fans but also for indigenous Goan talent. The GFA has instated a 'Goan player of the Match' award with a cash prize of Rs 1.001 for Goan players from Goan teams. While the fans could also win Rs 1.001 in a lottery amongst paying spectators with a valid ticket on match day only. The first winner was named today.
Also the GFA is taking a line from the IFA and is allowing school students in uniform and with idendity cards free entry to the ground, while during halftime there would be entertainment in different forms.

6. February
9th National League - Calcutta: East Bengal Club 2-0 JCT Mills - Goals: 1-0 Juliano Martins (31'), 2-0 Climax Lawrence (74').
Champions East Bengal made it four wins in a row with a 2-0 victory against JCT Mills in a 9th National League match at the Saltlake Stadium, Calcutta. In their quest for a third title in a row East Bengal now have 14 points from six matches, while JCT remain on seven points.
The match wasn't as clear as the scoreline would suggest as the young Millmen from Phagwara not only matched their famed and much more experienced rivals from Calcutta, but they just couldn't score.
Early on JCT had more of the ball, playing sound football and then Sukhjinder Singh was elbowed by East Bengal's Douglas da Silva in the penalty area, which left Sukhjinder with a bleeding nose. Forget a penalty, the referee didn't even give Douglas a card which repeated itself three more times in the first half itself. East Bengal's midfield took its time to settle down, but when it did JCT were in for some trouble. East Bengal coach Subhas Bhowmick played his new Brazilian striker Juliano Martins for the first time and the striker would not disappoint the fans, though he missed the first chance he got a minute before the half hour mark. But he made amends only two minutes later when he scored of a rebound, when JCT keeper Manusuru Mohammed couldn't hold on to a Chandan Das long-ranger.
JCT had some good chances in the second half, a handful some really dangerous, but it was just not to be. East Bengal meanwhile ensured victory in the 74.minute when Baichung Bhutia send Malswam Tulunga free on the right, who went past KV Dhanesh and then centred the ball for Climax Lawrence to head the ball home.
EAST BENGAL: Sangram Mukherjee, Surya Bikash Chakraborty (52' Sasthi Duley), Selwyn Fernandes, Muttath Suresh, Douglas da Silva, Syed Rahim Nabi, Shylo Malswam Tulunga, Chandan Das, Climax Lawrence (80' Habibur Rehman Mondal), Juliano Martins (66' Earnest Jeremiah), Baichung Bhutia.
JCT: Mansuru Mohammed, Jagjit Singh Randhawa, Harpreet Singh, Julius Irabor Akpele, KV Dhanesh, Baldeep Singh (70' Surjit Singh), Sukhwinder Singh (46' Jaswinder Singh), Sukhjinder Singh, Ram Pal, Harvinder Singh (54' Hardip Singh Gill), Manjit Singh.
REFEREE: Dinesh Nair (Gujarat).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Douglas da Silva (East Bengal).

9th National League - Calcutta: State Bank of Travancore 0-0 Tollygunge Agragami - Goals: none.
State Bank of Travancore were held to a goalless draw by Tollygunge Agragami in a 9th National League match at the Municipal Corporation Stadium, Calicut. After six matches SBT now have five points, while Tollygunge are better placed with nine points.
After two defeats at the hands of Fransa and East Bengal, SBT wanted and needed the three points to move away from the bottom of the league, while for Tollygunge after a solid start with eight points from five matches a draw would be quite fine. And the strategy of Biswajit Das's men showed that Tolly wanted a draw to take the one point home to Calcutta. In deep defence Nigerian Isiaka Awoyemi was helped by Ghanian Suley Musah, who held the SBT attack in check, but whenever they got through Arindam Ghosh was there in the Tollygunge goal. For his solid performance Arindam later got the "Man of the Match" award.
Infront of a good Sunday crowd SBT needed time to settle down hampered by Tollygunge's defensive approach but when they got started, they used the flanks for their attacks. The best chances were left for captain Lanel Thomas but on both occasions he shot went wayward. The introduction of Sylvester Ignatius added teeth to the SBT attack, but they just couldn't score on the day, while Tollygunge were happy to defend.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Arindam Ghosh (Tollygunge).

40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - South Zone Qualifiers: Tamil Nadu 2-1 Kerala
40.Dr BC Roy (under-19) Trophy - South Zone Qualifiers: Andhra Pradesh 7-0 Pondicherry

Note-1: In their biggest win of their short existance, Viva Kerala beat Calcutta giants Mohammedan Sporting Club 2-1 in the semifinals of the Alukka's Gold Cup at Edvanna, Malapurram, while Kerala