Three Star defeated MMC in sudden death after the regular 70 minute ended in a goalless draw and the tiebreaker ended in a 4-4 stalemate.[break]
The winners Three Star bagged a purse of Rs 100,000 along with the trophy while the runners up MMC returned home with Rs 50,000.
In the current season, senior team of MMC had lost twice to Three Star in the final of major football events of the country including British Gurkha Cup held in the Capital some three months ago and Aaha Gold Cup held in Pokhara about a month ago.
The victory turned to be the first major title to Three Star coach Rajendra Karki who has been assuming the duty of football coach in Little Angeles since 14 years.
Had Bikash Rai succeeded in converting his fourth spot-kick the title would have gone in MMC´s hand as they had an upper hand after Ujwal Poudel was denied the second spot kick by MMC goalie Roshan Karki.
Three Star erupted in joy after Gauravman Shakya missed the first strike of the sudden death for MMC while his counterpart Khunken Lama had already converted the same one for Three Star.
Tej Lama, Kamal Thapamagar, Sanjay Moktan and Kiran Gahatraj had converted spot kicks for MMC respectively while Avishek Rijal, Basanta Tamang, Abishek Lama and Biplar Shah succeeded in tiebreaker for Three Star.
Earlier, in the competitive match, the young guns of MMC came up with a well-coordinated show as compared to taller and stronger opponents of the Three Star, which consist of seven players of Little Angeles School. Both the team made few post attacks but all in vain.
Manish Karki of Three Star missed the target twice in the second half. Kiran Gahatraj´s header for MMC was saved by goalie Karki after the interval.
Meanwhile, the two semifinalists--Bansbari Club and Machhindra Club received Rs 25,000 each.
Three Star coach Karki, who was hopeful of winning the title after playing second match of the event, rated Thursday´s match as the competitive one. “MMC played better than us,” Karki lauded the opponents.
He also dismissed the complaint by Bansbari against Three Star alleging the latter of fielding overage players. “Every players of the squad have passed the medical test taken by the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) doctors,” Karki said adding, “To speak frankly there are over-age players in every squad.”
Roshan Karki (goalkeeper), Avishek Lama (striker), Rajendra Karki (coach) of Three Star Club, Muskan Lama (defense), Kamal Thapamagar (midfield) of MMC won the best player for different positions.
Arpan Rai of Machhindra and Jeetendra Shrestha of Bansbari jointly received the award for the highest scorer. Both of them scored four goals apiece. Bauddha Football Club won the fair play award.
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