With the win, the police club opened their account with three points in group ´A´ to level their points with NIBL Friends Club of Lalitpur who defeated their neighbors Samsung Jawalakhel Youth Club 2-0 in the inaugural match of the same group on Wednesday.
Suman Subedi, Chetan Ghimire, Jumanu Rai and Bhola Silwal scored one each for the star-studded police team which dominated the entire match. The police team consists of nine national players. The helpless Eastern Region team comprising rookies made only a couple of easy post attempts.
Police, making more than half a dozen attractive moves in the first half, had to wait until the 27th minute to break the deadlock. Suman headed a free-kick inside the box from Parbat Pandey to send the ball past the net and give the police an early lead. They were awarded with the free kick after Jumanu Rai was taken down by an Eastern defender.
However, Police had to wait until the second half to score the other three goals as none was possible in the remaining time of the first half.
Striker Chetan who squandered almost half a dozen good opportunities of scoring in the match doubled the advantage in the 59th minute utilizing a pass from Rabin Shrestha inside the box. Jumanu made a short spectacular pass in course of beating the Eastern custodian Padam Limbu.
Likewise, Jumanu scored the third in the 74th minute from the box capitalizing on a pass from Dipendra Paudel and Bhola Silwal killed the match one minute before the regular time. Bhola made a quick attempt on the rebounder off a powerful strike made by Pankaj Shahi of Police that hit the pole.
The victory was possible for the police team due to the individual brilliance and experience of the players, commented Police Coach Birat Krishna Shrestha. “The team has not conducted training for more than one month due to the SAFF Championship and it is the first tournament that we are competing without training,” Shrestha said. “Had the opponents been strong, it would have been difficult for us to win the match,” said Birat, reiterating that the winners´ trophy was the team´s target.
Eastern Coach Darshan Bhakta Raj said that the team came to participate in the tournament for exposure after a short training of about 4-5 days. “The players in the team are young and new faces. We want to give exposure to the players and make them saleable in the football market.”
Friday´s matches
Mid & Far West XI Vs RCT @ 12:00 NST
Three Star Vs Boys Union @ 14:00 NST
Venue: Dasharath Stadium
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