DHARAN, Feb 20: The blue team of host Dharan Football Club has reached the semifinal of the 19th Budhasubba Red Bull Gold Cup with a convincing 3-0 win over Sahara Club of Pokhara on Sunday. 

Goals from Rejin Subba, Prakash Budhathoki and Buddha Chemjong sent Dharan into the last four. Now the home team will take on the winner between United Sikkim Football Club of India and Nepal Police Club in the semifinal on February 23. 

In the match played at ANFA Technical Center in Dharan, the home team went ahead in the 14th minute through Rejin. Rejin collected a rebound following a freekick from Heman Gurung and fired the ball into Sahara’s post. Prakash extended Dharan’s lead with a curling freekick in the 28th minute. The home team was awarded the freekick after Rejin was fouled by Sahara’s Ramesh Magar. Buddha sealed the comfortable victory scoring in the 74th minute. He utilized a cross from Prakash to score the third goal. 

Dharan studded with domestic stars including Heman, Prakash alongside African recruits Peter Segun and Iwo Mousa kept Sahara under pressure throughout the match. Sahara which had come to Dharan with young players couldn’t create much scoring chances. 
Dharan had the opportunity to produce an early lead in the match but Peter Segun’s header hit the woodwork in the fourth minute.

Similarly, the home team missed another chance after Prakash failed to score in a one-versus-one situation against Sahara’s goalkeeper Akash Ranabhat in the 24th minute. Four minutes into the second half, Rejin also couldn’t score in a similar situation as his shot went wide following deflection on Sahara’s goalie Akash. 

Meanwhile, Sahara’s Bishwajit Gurung had a chance to score for the visiting team but his 19th minute header sailed wide. In the 30th minute, Sahara’s Ishwar Baniya’s close-range effort was denied by Dharan goalie Manoj Pradhan. Sahara’s Sinkeman Tamang’s acrobatic shot in the 65th minute also couldn’t enter the net. Dharan’s Rejin Subba was declared the man-of-the-match and was rewarded with Rs 5000 while the goal scorers were given Rs 2000 each.  

Despite the victory, Dharan’s head coach Subash KC wasn’t satisfied with his players. “my players lacked coordination and had too many missed passes.  Hopefully, we can improve in the next match,” said head coach KC. 

Similarly, Sahara’s head coach Subash Gurung said lack of experienced players was the reason for the poor performance. 

“As we have made this team with young players of Pokhara, we don’t have experienced domestic stars which affected the outcome today. We also failed to break Dharan’s stubbornness,” said Gurung. 

Departmental side Armed Police Force (APF) and Simara Gold Cup winner CMG Sankata will vie in the next quarterfinal clash on Monday.

 
• dharan football club
 
• budhasubba
 
• pokhara