Nadkarni Cup 2005

Nadkarni Cup 2005: from 5. upto 17.July 2005 in Mumbai, Maharashtra

The Nadkarni Cup which was first held way back in 1939 had been suspended between 1983 to 2000 due to factionalism in Mumbai football. It has been revived since the 2000 season onwards, though it was skipped again in 2004.The late Ghanashyam Nilkanth Nadkarni had donated the trophy for the tournament. This year it is almost being played as the Mumbai football season curtain-raiser. Usually top teams skip the tournament. But this year most top teams like Mahindra United, Air India, BMFC are participating. They're showing every intention to capture the trophy, and hope to use it as a useful platform to fine-tune and assess their teams for the upcoming league campaign. For this will be the first competitive opportuity for the inter-state recruits to impress their new coaches. Undoubtedly Mahindra United are starting out as favourites, but with their coach being unveiled on the 11th, a day before their first match in the Cup, they just might be distracted. United could win their third Nadkarni Cup in five years. Unfortunately defending champions Haywards 2000 are not participating. A few Super Division teams too are looking out to impress against their Elite Division rivals. An upset or two in the pre-quarterfinals should not be completely ruled out. Just hoping that the rain doesn't play havoc with the ground-conditions, and so the true spectacle of knock-out Cup football is present for all to enjoy, in what promises to be an interesting tournament. If matches end with a draw after 90 minutes, there will be no extratime, but directly a penalty shootout

Pre-Quarterfinals:
05-Jul-05: Rizvi Mumbai Muslims     0-3 Rashtriya Chemicals&Fertilizers
 [50 Shayresh Bawkar, 71 Neville David, 79 Kailash Patil]
06-Jul-05: Golden Gunners           1-0 Bank of India
 [21 Sujit Manaly]
07-Jul-05: Maharashtra State Police 1-0 Mumbai Customs
 [89 Kailash Pardi]
08-Jul-05: Western Railway          0-1 Akbar Travels
 [49 Bijumon Kaiparath]


Quarterfinals:
09-Jul-05: Air-India                6-5 Golden Gunners [penalties]
10-Jul-05: Central Railway          3-5 Maharashtra State Police [penalties]
11-Jul-05: Indian Navy              3-5 Akbar Travels [penalties]
 [I: 35 Sumesh PS; A: 45 Vijesh P Vijayan]
12-Jul-05: Mahindra United          6-2 Rashtriya Chemicals&Fertilizers
 [M: 8 Steven Dias, 25,39,44 Abhishek Yadav, 65 Shanmugam Venkatesh, 83 Sushanth Mathew; R: 53 Atchuta Rao, 88 Kishor Khedkar]


Semifinals:
13-Jul-05: Air-India                2-1 Maharashtra State Police
 [A: 44,85 Paresh Shivalkar; M: 71 Kailash Pardi]
14-Jul-05: Akbar Travels            0-5 Mahindra United
 [28 Krishnan Nair Ajayan, 41,43,56 Abhishek Yadav, 85 Keegan Pereira]


3rd Place Playoff:
17-Jul-05: Akbar Travels            2-4 Maharashtra State Police [penalties]
 [A: 48 Subin Ankilesaria; M: ]


Final:
17-Jul-05: Air-India                5-4 Mahindra United [penalties]
 [A: 87 Benoy Kuruvilla; M: 25 Abhishek Yadav]

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