By Abhishek Roy, IANS
Ludhiana : Viva Kerala, a team formed just three years ago, created the first upset of the 29th Federation Cup football tournament when they shocked the more experienced Air India 2-1 here Thursday, to send the Mumbai side crashing out of the competition.
The Kerala team came from behind with goals from Satish Kumar (41st minute) and James Singh (68th) to march into the quarterfinals of the 16-team tournament. Sanju Pradhan scored Air India’s only goal in the 16th minute.
The result came as a big boost for Viva Kerala, who have just been promoted to the first division national league and will be playing in the inaugural Professional League later this year.
“We are still a baby and the win will really help the boys as they are gearing up hard for the Professional League. It was an evenly fought game and my boys gave their best,” said Viva Kerala coach A.M. Sreedharan, who has also coached the national team in the past.
Air India dominated in the first 25 minutes and the Viva Kerala defenders had a tough time. The Mumbai outfit had a clear chance to open the scoring in the 13th minute when Narendra Meetei was set-up in the box but his wayward shot squandered the opportunity.
Air India took the lead three minutes later, thanks to a blunder by Viva Kerala goalie Puroshothaman. A pinpoint pass from Hringsolal Thomte found an unmarked Pradhan in the box and his shot went between Puroshothaman’s legs.
After taking the lead, Air India stepped on the gas and in the 23rd minute, a valiant header from Samson Singh went wide. Paresh Shivalkar raced in from the left to give a nice cross and Samson went for a diving header that missed the horizontal by a whisker.
With four minutes for the break, Viva Kerala found the equaliser when Satish Kumar flicked in off a rebound by Air India custodian Raju Ekka. The goalkeeper thwarted a powerful right footer from Bimal Barua but failed to grab the ball and Kumar, who was lurking in the box, stabbed in the equaliser.
After the breather, Viva Kerala looked a completely different lot and came out firing all cylinders. Barua and Kumar kept on making regular forays into the Mumbai outfit’s defence and the wining goal came in the 68th minute from a free kick as James curled in accurately to leave everyone stunned.
TEAMS:
Air India: Raju Ekka (goalkeeper), Santosh Koli, Uttam Singh,
Dhanchandra Singh, Covan Lawrence (Amritpal Singh, 17), Paresh
Shivalkar, Narendra Meetei, Sanju Pradhan (Jiten Rai, 74) Santosh
Koli, Vijith Shetty (Hirohito Thomte, 74), Samson Singh
Viva Kerala: Purushothaman T.G (goalkeeper), Othallo Tabia, Irungabam
Singh, Satish Kumar, Sunil Kumar, Sajesh P., Parveen Rawat, S. James Singh, Bimal Barua, Santa Singh, Lalu K.V.
Referee: Mohammed Kamil (Delhi)