57th CC Meet final: SSB (WB) breach TRAU's defence to lift trophy
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, January 11 2014 : Flair on the front versus water tight defence marked the final of the 57th CC Meet football tournament between SSB (West Bengal) and Tiddim Road Athletics Union (TRAU), Kwakeithel, played in front of a near capacity crowd at the main stadium of Khuman Lampak today.

The scoreline of 1-0 in favour of SSB (WB), underlined the essence of the game, in which no team yielded an inch to the other, though ultimately, it was the flair of the SSB (WB), orchestrated by the two strikers of the winning team, H Govind and Ng Jitkumar which ultimately proved to be the winning card.

Man to man, the two teams were evenly matched, but it was the strategy adopted by the SSB team that ultimately bore fruit.

The two strikers of SSB, H Govind and Ng Jitkumar combined well to initiate a good number of moves, but the tight defence of TRAU, excellently marshalled by its skipper, M Meino scuppered all their efforts.

The lone and decisive goal came in the 31st minute, when the midfielders of SSB mounted a co-ordinated attack and breached the defence line on the right side.

TRAU defenders did well in tackling the forwards but in their efforts to clear the ball only succeeded in conceding a corner kick.

Rana Deep Das took the flag kick and sent in a well measured cross inside the penalty box of TRAU, where a lurking Ng Jitkumar pounced on the ball and unleashed a powerful shot towards the goal.

Caught on the wrong foot, a desperate attempt by TRAU skipper only managed to handle the ball and the referee did not hesitate to point to the dreaded spot.

In the fitness of things, Ng Jitkumar took the penalty kick and he had little problem in sending the ball to far right of the goal, leaving the TRAU custodian rooted to the spot.

Lemon break was taken with SSB leading by a solitary goal.

With one goal down, TRAU put more men on the attack, but all their efforts went to naught as the defence line of SSB managed to keep the ball at bay.

Save for a stray one or two look at the goal, TRAU never really managed to initiate a dangerous move to test the custodian of SSB.

It was not TRAU on the attack all the way in the second half, as SSB too launched a series of counter attacks, but the defence of TRAU stood firm, under the directions of its skipper, M Meino.

As the minute hand started ticking towards the 90th minute mark, TRAU went all out to find the equaliser, but to no avail.

The winner walked away with a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh while the runner up received Rs 1 lakh.

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