NCC, Aizwal to meet Sagarbhanga, West Bengal in Subroto Cup summit clash

Oct 06: The final will witness a tussle between beauty and power

NCC, NER (Aizwal) set up a final date with Sagarbhanga High school, West Bengal, as the Mizoram boys prevailed 3-2 over Rosary High school, Goa with a last minute strike by James Lalrammuana in a keenly contested semi-final of the All India Subroto Cup (Under-17) football tournament played at the Ambedkar stadium, New Delhi on Friday.

Rosary, Goa snatched an early lead 1-0 in the 3 rd minute of the game through Vellington Rocha, who rushed through the defence to score an opportunistic goal with a fine header.

NCC boys didn’t panic with the sudden spate and pressed hard to score an equaliser and their efforts paid off when their star striker Lalhlimpuia levelled the score with a deft header ten minutes later.

Both the teams tried hard to surge ahead in the first half but locked 1-1 at the stroke of the lemon break.

On resumption, NCC players got their act together and dished out an attacking game in quest of a victory while Goan outfit was not in their element as they hardly gave any tough time to their opponents. There mid-field was somewhat looking scratchy as the medios weren’t be able to build up any goal scoring moves for their forwards.

Lalbiaksanga put NCC ahead in the 50 th minute scoring off a goal-mouth melee. At that point, it looked as if the match would end up with a 2-1 score line but Rosary’s Joles Fernandes restored parity a minute later on a sheer defensive lapse, as all NCC defenders came to standstill while screaming for an off side.

The match saw some dramatic turnarounds in the last ten minutes, as Goan player Valinton Dsouza’s missed out a penalty shooting it wide. He would never ever forget this particular moment of his life, since it cost his team a possible purse of Rs. 1 lakh, by ending up as the member of losing semi-finalist team of this prestigious inter-school tournament.

The luck was surely riding on the NCC team’s side, as they pulled off a last minute victory with James Lalrammuana scoring on rebound, after Lalhlimpuia powerful left-footer hit directly on the post, to seal the victory for his team.

The final of the tournament will be played on October 16 where the spectators will surely witness a fascinating game of soccer that too between the beauty and skill of Mizoram boys and power and brawny game of Bengal boys.