Subroto Cup: Manipur, Nagaland schools enter junior girls semifinals

New Delhi: Chanambam Thambou Higher Secondary School, Manipur, handed a 10-0 hammering to Telanaga Sports School from Secunderabad, to enter the junior girls (U-17) semifinals in the 56th Subroto Cup football tournament here on Friday.

The Manipur girls beat the Telangana girls 10-0 in the first quarterfinal while, in the second, Sports School, Nagaland, posted a facile 1-0 win over Tripura's Sports School.

The sub-junior girls' semifinal battles in the tournament will resume on Sunday after a day's rest tomorrow.

The way the match progressed in both the sessions, one could surely say that the Telangana girls were finding the going tough, not because of their goal-crazy opponents, but because the Sports School was found wanting on many counts.

Wayward passing, lacklustre coordination and, most importantly, lack of finishing after entering the box made things worse for them. There were some rare occasions when their forwards could have made a few worthwhile attempts, but feeble or delayed shots only compounded their misery.

In contrast, the West Imphal girls had everything sewn up in their favour in the first half itself as they struck six goals in the first 30 minutes, while playing relaxed football managed to score four more in the second session.

Roza Devi, who opened the account in the second minute, added a goal in the 20th minute and three more in second half (45, 48 and 54th minutes) to swell her tally. But even before that, Kashmina struck twice in the third and 12th minute. In between, Ranjit Devi scored in the 23rd and 27th minute and another one in the second half (37).

Groping for clues and ball possession, the Telangana school team failed to be inventive or at least raise the standards of defence. That proved to be their downfall. If one witnessed an action-packed one-sided match earlier, the second one between the two northeastern teams was absolutely pedestrian, the first half between Nagaland and Tripura heading nowhere.

One had to wait too long to spot a winner as the Kohima team consumed 48 minutes to open the account through a goal from Abeino and the Tripura side spent the entire 60 minutes without a reply.

It looked the Nagaland girls' overall play was good, but not good enough to carry them further in the tournament.