Titanium loses Gold
Titanium lost 3-5 in tie breaker to Army XI in the finals of All India Chief Ministers Gold Cup Football Tournament held at Bhaichung Stadium in Namchi.
The Kerala side were leading 1-0 at the half time through Abdul Hamid strike. Clitus added to the lead early in the second half. At 2-0 Titanium was looking good to finish off the game.
Army men came back to the match during the later stages of the second half when they converted a penalty kick awarded for a handball incident inside Titanium’s penalty area.
The score was 2-1 and deep into injury time Army XI won a corner kick which they managed to head in to the rival posts.
The match was tied 2-2 at the final whistle and taken in to tie breaker where two Titaniums key players Ebin Rose and Clitus unfortunately missed from the spot. Final score 3-5.
The winning team is awarded a Cash prize of Rs 1 lakh while the runners up will receive Rs 50,000.
“Army XI are a well settled team coming back after Durand Cup. We played well and was in control of the game for the major part. We have some new players and our inexperience is what cost us.” said Mr Rajiv Kumar, Coach of Titanium.
Coach also said that the club has a big problem of losing players to other clubs. “We are losing players at end of each season. So have to build up a new squad every year.”
Speaking to FootballKerala.com, Titanium goalkeeper KT Navas added “Yes, we have few players of age group of 18-20 coming out of college level. They are doing very well and improving every game. This has been a good experiance for us coming onto Federation Cup qualifiers”
Titanium would arrive on 27th November at Kozhikode for their Federation Cup qualifiers where they take on Chandni FC on 29th Nov
