Now ‘Dhanversha’ for Indian Football Team

Aug 30: Now the Indian football team might be enriched and glamorised after winning the ONGC Nehru Gold Cup by defeating its’ much higher ranking team Syria by 1-0 in the final match on Wednesday at Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi.

Suddenly Indian football team came into the limelight after winning a prestigious international tournament ending the drought of the any big international title since 2002 when India had lifted the LG Cup in Hanoi. This winning proved the golden moments for India Football players as the lottery came out in terms of prizes and rewards for the winner of Nehru Cup yesterday.

India received the winners' prize of USD 40,000 and ONGC announced a 100 per cent bonus for the Indian tigers. Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit announced to give Rs five lakh as a reward while All India Football Federation announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for the entire football team.

This title has added another golden chapter in the Indian football history. Though Indian Football history is not as enriched as Indian Hockey, yet India had secured fourth position in Melbourne Olympics and Won gold medal in 1951, 1962 in the Asian games, while won Bronze Medal in 1970 Asian games. In Asia Cup 1964 it won Silver Medal. That was the golden periods, but the time has come back as India lifted the ONGC Nehru Gold cup for the first time in its football history.

How India Win

Before beginning of the match Indian Football players were quite confident to win the title despite of loosing to Syria in the league match. India had already defeated Kyrgyzstan, the 3-0 on Sunday Aug 26 that was considered superior team to India. So the confidence level was extremely high for the Indian and they proved it in the final by defeating the 39 th ranked higher team in the winning title game.

It was a really tough match for both the team as no team could succeed to goal in the first half. But in the second half a solitary goal from N P Pradeep became the final goal of the tournament that clinched India's first title victory in the ONGC Nehru Cup since its beginning.

It is Bob Houghton who coached the Indian football team that Indian could achieve the remarkable feat through a 44 th minute strike against tournament favourites Syria. Before Indian skipper Bhaichung Bhutia struck a goal but the match referee declared it foul. After ending the heartbreaking six minutes of injury time, the entire Ambedkar Stadium dipped into the celebration when the final whistle went on.

Before beginning the final mach Indian skipper Bhaichung Bhutia had declared that "there was a very realistic chance of India winning the title." and finally his team have proved it. The match referee showed several yellow cards to both teams and the at last Syrians had to play the entire second half with 10 men.

Several Celebrities includes Virendra Sehwag and Dhanraj Pillai enjoyed the winning moments on the ground. Priyaranjan Das Munshi, the president of All India Football Federation jumped with joy and later he announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh from the federation to the host.

President Pratibha Patil, Vice President Hamid Ansari and Lok Sabha speaker Somanth Chaterjee have congratulated the team for their splendid performance.