Police will make an attempt to take home the title for a record fourth time while RCT, who have been without any title for a decade will be looking for a new beginning by winning the title. RCT have not had any major achievements in recent times other than winning the Birthday Cup held in the capital in 2000. [break]
Of the two finalists, RCT have made it to the final of the Budha Subba Gold Cup for the first time.
In fact, RCT had participated only in the first edition of the tournament in 1998. On that occasion, they had crashed out of the event from the semifinal following a defeat at the hands of Bulgeria Sporting Club, India.
RCT will come up with their full effort in Saturday´s final to create history. RCT have not conceded any goal in the ongoing tournament. However, it will be a tough challenge for them to maintain their clean sheet in the final against police.
RCT defeated Jhapa XI 1-0 in the quarterfinal and beat the hosts Dharan FC in the semifinal through tie-breaker.
On the other hand, the police have made it through to the final for the fifth time. They won the second, fourth and fifth editions of the tournament. Three Star have also won the title thrice.
In course of their journey to the final, police defeated ANFA U-16 4-0 in the quarterfinal and Himalayan Sherpa 2-0 in the semifinal.
Both the teams will come up with 4-4-2 formation in offensive style. The police are bound to play without some of their first choice players like Jumanu Rai, Rakesh Shrestha, Chetan Ghimire and Deepak Poudel owing to injuries. RCT will be trying to take advantage of the absence of these key players.
However, police coach Birat Krishna Shrestha is confident that his team will not feel the absence of prominent players. “We don´t play any games thinking that we will lose, so we need not be afraid.”
However, he does not underestimate RCT. “RCT are also a good team; they are also capable of beating any other teams,” Shrestha added.
Shrestha considers his midfield consisting of veteran Parbat Pandey, Yogesh Shrestha, Roshan Karki and Bhola Silwal as the strongest part of the team.
Pankaj Shahi and Deepen Shrestha will be taking charge of attacking and Suman Subedi, Rupen Shrestha, Deependra Paudel and Suraj Bishwakarma are the defenders.
RCT coach Madhu Karki, too, is confident of lifting the trophy as his players are in good form. “The boys are playing well and the players in the police squad are injured, so we could win the trophy,” Karki said.
Karki considers RCT´s defense line-up to be the major obstacle for the police. Krishna Kunwar, Raghu Prajapati, Santosh Gurung and Bhim Darlami will take over the defense duties.
“We are facing title drought from a long time, so we want to end this by winning Budhasubba and the players will come up with high spirits,” Karki added.
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