E-Kantipur

POKHARA, FEB 02 -

The champion of the fourth edition of Aaha Gold Cup, African United (AU) registered a hard fought 2-1 win against Rupandehi XI in the Aaha Gold Cup on Tuesday.

This is the second meeting between the two teams. In the first encounter, AU had ended the run of Rupandehi without much effort. Nevertheless, in the current meeting, Rupendehi was an improved team, thanks to players hired from different club. They managed to give the assembled squad of African players currently playing in the top flight, a run for their money in the early hours of the game. 

Rupandehi took hold of the game and kept the African team in constant pressure. Ashim Jung Karki provided the lead for Rupandehi in the 55th minute of the game from a searching delivered by his teammate Krishna Lama in the danger area of AU.

The advantage made Rupandehi resort to a defensive mode. This was when the quick African players relied on their pace to in their opponent’s area.  Adeyamo Michael pulled a goal back in the 73rd minute. His stunning volley fired from the edge of the box took the direction of a goal, giving his team much needed confidence. Following the lead, AU changed the course of the match completely, dominating the entire play.

Thomas Stocky scored in a similar fashion in the 82nd minute to inflict more misery on Rupandehi who have yet to win a single match since the first edition of the championship back in 2002. 

“We failed to make the best of our opportunities and players could not perform well due to tiresome defending in the second half,” said Yam Gurung, coach of Rupandehi.  “The African team were not excessively potent but we failed to find a winning result.”

Rupandehi wasted more than half a dozen of goal scoring opportunities. On the other hand, African team were also faltering in the attack and gave away ball too easily from repeated miss-passes.

The coach of AU, Osha admitted that his team played very shallow game in  the first half but expressed satisfaction from the improved performance in the second half. “We will remain conscious not to repeat the similar mistakes,” he said.

 

Posted on: 2012-02-02 09:12

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