Army XI won the Durand Cup football tournament for the first time, beating Sporting Clube de Goa 5-4 via the tie-breaker in the final in Delhi on Saturday.
This is the first time that a Services team has won the second oldest football tournament in the world, the last being Gorkha Brigade, in 1969.
The Armymen had lost to East Bengal in the final in 2002.
The game was goalless even after extra-time, forcing the implementation of the penalty shoot-out to decided the champions.
In the do-or-die moments, it was the Army team that held their nerve to edge out their more fancied rivals as they had done in the semi-final against JCT Mills, Phagwara.
Ramachander, Thirunavukarsu, Birendra Bora , Binod Bantava and Raghu Kumar found the net for Army XI while Chidi Edeh, Nicholas Rodrigues, Rajesh Meetei and Hardeep Saini were on target for the Goan outfit.
The spot-kick of Macpheien Omaghbemi Dudu, the Nigerian captain of the Goan club, was saved by substitute custodian Abungobi Singh, who had come on just before the shoot-out.
The soldiers, coached by Stanley Rozario, effectively neutralised the threat of Dudu and Chidi and controlled the game to a large extent.
The Goans were to blame for the defeat as they missed several chances, Dudu being the main culprit.
His misery was complete when he missed the fifth kick in the tie-breaker.
© 2024 Rediff.com -