BSNL Football: Bengal bags the title again
West Bengal was crowned the champions of the All India BSNL Football Championship held at Jawahar Stadium, Kannur. Meanwhile, the hosts – Kerala, who showed a lot of promise early in the tournament, went down to neighbours, Karnataka, in a semi final tie breaker.
Bengal won the final by goals from Ayan Chaudhury and Gopal Das. Karnataka could only return 1 goal which was scored by Suresh. In another match to decide the 2nd runners up, Maharashtra defeated Kerala – lady luck not favouring Kerala this time too in the penalties.
Kerala started the championship with a 6-0 win over Delhi Northern Telecom Region, powered by a hat trick from their captain Suresh. This was then followed up by thrashing of Madhya Pradesh (11-0). Suresh found 6 goals under his name this time!
Kerala qualified for the semi finals after a 3-0 win over Gujarat in their last match of the preliminary round. Suresh scored twice while Santosh Kumar grabbed the other goal. Kerala were to face Karnataka in the semis while the defending champions Bengal got Maharashtra to their name. Bengal defeated Orissa by a solitary goal to reach the last four.
In the semi final, Kerala and Karnataka kept parity in the 90 minutes (2-2) and the match was to be decided in the penalties. Kerala eventually lost in the penalties 4-5. Bengal proved their power by defeating Maharashtra 5-0 in the semi final and were pumped up for the final against Karnataka.
The VP Sathyan Memorial trophy for the tournament’s top scorer was given away to Kerala’s Suresh who scored 13 goals from 6 games. West Bengal’s RN Singh Roy was declared the best goal keeper.
Adwaidh R for footballkerala.com
