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Eastern Railways into final
BIRATNAGAR, JAN 16 - Eastern Railways, Kolkata rode on the brilliance of their goalkeeper K Saurav to enter the final of Mahendra Gold Cup football tournament beating Tribhuvan Club held in Shahid Maidan.
In a hardly-fought semifinal today, Saurav saved three penalties to guide Eastern Railways to 3-1 tie-breaker win over the army outfit and set up title clash with defending champions Mahendra Police Club on Saturday.
The Kolkata team weathered the army attack for most part of the match with a man short after their midfielder S Das was expelled by referee Kiran Giri after his second bookable offence on Tribhuvan Club goalie Chhannu Ram Chaudhary in the 43rd minute of the match.
Saurav saved three of the four penalties while Chaudhary was a mere spectator in conceding all the three shots by Railways.
Only Shiva Chaudhary scored for the army outfit as Raju Lama, Chun Bahadur Thapa and Mahendra Khawas were spectacularly denied by Saurav. A Mondal, S Bit and K Biswas converted their penalties for Railways.
Tribhuvan Club sorely missed the services of Saila Maharjan who missed the match due to injury. "Saila could have added sting to our attack," Tribhuvan Club coach Sujan KC said.
Trinhuvan Club’s finishing left a lot to be desired as they missed a string of close chances while the brilliant Saurav denied them on other instances. The speedy Bishwo Bairag Samal missed two close chances in the match. Samal was fed a ball by Hari Bahadur Mahato but he couldn’t beat the advancing goalie Saurav in the 38th minute of the match. In the 86th minute of the match, he failed to latch on to yet another opening created by Manoj Thapa.
Both the teams appeared to be evenly matched from the onset. The army outfit had the slight advantage of their physical superiority but that was balanced by the technical aspect of Railways. But after going one man short, the Railways looked to bolster their defense and take the match into tiebreaker.
The army started to dominate the proceeding from that moment but couldn’t find the net. Hari Bahadur Mahato’s header off a Babukaji Dhaubanjar’s cross was brilliantly saved by Saurav in the 45th minute of the match to keep Railways team on level terms going into the second break.
The change of ends didn’t change the fortune of army men and they made futile attempt to find the elusive goal. Raju Lama got a free Shot at Railways goal in the 53rd minute but was again denied by agile Saurav. Hari Bahdur Mahato missed another close chance in the 63rd minute of the match. The armymen couldn’t breach the Railways defence in the normal time and 20 minutes of added time was allotted.
The army men dominated the extra time as well and came close to scoring in the 18th minute of extra time. Raju Lama fed Shiva Chaudhari from the right of the post and Chaudhary connected a brilliant volley but Saurav made an acrobatic save. Tulashi Chudhari latched on to the resulting rebound but was again thwarted by Saurav. Posted on: 2004-01-17 03:44
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