Holy Cross 6-A side Tournament Round-up

by Siddharth Yadav October 26, 2015

Naupada Football Club (NFC) Kurla emerged as winners of Holy Cross 6-A side Football Tournament at Holy Cross Ground, Kurla on Sunday evening after defeating local team X Boys on penalties.

Over 16 teams fought each other on Sunday to confirm their place in Final against NFC, who booked their place in the Tournament’s Final a week ago after defeating Air India Colony in Semis.

Following their old traditions and rituals the Tournament kicked off yesterday in a similar fashion as it did on the first day of the Tournament on 18^th October, 2015.

Blasters defeated Spartan FC 4-2 in the first match of the day, which made them progress into the pre-quarters. Dean scored a brace while Cloudious and Troy Nunes scored apiece to sink Spartan FC, who did manage to score in the second-half from Jitu Thakur and Bala.

Facing Blasters in pre-quarters was JDKM, who went past Warriors 2-1 on penalties after the match ended 1-1 in normal time.

Spectators witnessed another penalty shootout later as Lonavala FC won the bragging rights against Ass Kickers, winning the match 4-3 on penalties as they were levelled at 3-3 in normal time.

Ass Kickers had an early advantage as Satyam and Hitesh put them in front. In the second-half Lonavala FC was trailing 3-1 but two quick goals from Siddhesh and Sagar in the second-half send the match into tie-breaker. Lonavala FC’s managed to win the tie-breaker in sudden death which marched them into pre-quarters.

On the other end, IB United brushed past OLGH 3-0 with goals from Alroy D’Souza, Imran Jalam and Royston Vaz set their clash against Lonavala FC in the next round.

It was time for the host to step into the field, Holy Cross Football Club was up against a boosted Daniel FC at Holy Cross Ground. The home team booked their place comprehensively in pre-quarters after Shailesh Jadhav’s fantastic strike proved to be the difference for the Host.

Locking their horns with the host in pre-quarters was G9 FC who thrashed Gorai Boys 6-0 in a one sided affair. Totto’s four goals and a brace from Shahid sinked Gorai Boys in the first-half itself where the score stood 5-0 before the teams headed into the second-half.

In the last two matches of the first round, Playboys edged past Kiran Boys 3-2 where two goals in second-half were enough to send the boys in yellow to confirm their place in pre-quarters.

Playboys faced local team X Boys who thrashed Hall Boys 4-0 in order to progress into pre-quarters. Abhijeet, Tefanso and Abhishek were among the scorers which helped them marching on.

The first pre-quarters of the day was played between Blasters and JDKM where the former thrashed the latter 6-0 to book their place in the Quarters.

Troy Nunes had a spectacular match as he scored four goals, Cloudious and Ryland shared a goal each to complete a rout against JDKM.

This was Blasters tenth goal of the tournament in just two games.

Blasters was about to face IB United who defeated Lonavala FC 4-2 to confirm their berth against inform Blasters in Quarters.

In the third pre-quarter, home team Holy Cross Football Team thrashed G9 3-1 in front of home spectators to march their way into the quarters and book their clash against X boys. Franco’s brace in the first-half and Dan Dias’s goal in second-half were enough to over G9, who scored a consolation late in the match through Shahid.

Holy Cross’s opponent in Quarters, X Boys too had a brilliant game where they won 4-1 against Playboys in due to Abhijeet’s hattrick.

In the first quarter-final of the day, Blasters kept their cool and defeated IB United 3-1 with Troy Nunes and Rylan scoring, yet again.

Soon, X Boys joined Blasters in the last four as they defeated the host Holy Cross Football Club 4-3 on penalties after the match ended goalless.

X Boys goalkeeper Sinclair brilliantly saved Franco’s penalty which handed Lara an golden opportunity to win the match which he perfectly placed into the right top corner, sending X Boys in the Semis against Blasters.

The much anticipated match between locals X Boys and Blasters were buzzing throughout in everyone’s mind prior to the clash. Both the teams were in blistering form but X Boys kept their nerves and edged Blaster in penalties.

Both the outfits played end to end quality football where he teams had to be separated via penalties.

With Cloudious blasting his penalty over the bar, Blasters only managed to convert two of their penalties as X Boys booked their place in the Final against Naupada Football Club at Holy Cross Ground.

In the final, both the teams Naupada Football Club (NFC) and X Boys had their chances but with inform X Boy’s goalkeeper Sinclair, NFC were struggling to find the net.

As for Naupada Football Club, a well organised defense from Shankar Thakur and Tushar kept the score at 0-0.

The match went into penalties where an early miss from X Boys gave NFC a huge advantage, Judhiste Padhi stepped up to take the final spot kick and managed to beat Sinclair to win the Title.

The atmosphere around the field erupted with joy as faithful of Naupada Football Club entered the field, celebrating with their heroes.

In the presentation, Blasters Troy Nunes was awarded with the “Most Goals Scored in the Tournament”, X Boys Sinclair with the “Best Goalkeeper” and Naupada Football Club’s Jagdish with the “Best Player of the Tournament” award.

The culture, passion about Football were clearly seen in the end as NFC kept celebrating marching towards their home.