Ronika Football: KRYPSA crowned champion after a tense final
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, March 31 2015 : KRYPSA lifted the 10th Soraisham Ronika Memorial Jr Girls State Level Football Tournament after a nerve wrecking final against ESU at Khuman Lampak Main Stadium on Tuesday.

Both the teams were equally match and it was difficult to indentify the real winner rather the team that have more control over the nerve eventually became the winner.

The winner was decided through penalty shootout after both the teams ended the regulation time in a death lock.

Rain could not dampen the spirit of the crowd and the player.

Crowd thronged the stadium to watch the final match defying the inclement weather.

The players take the pitch and the final match began with both the teams raiding each other territory to take an early lead.

Champion KRYPSA team with Ronika Memorial Trophy

In a well coordinate move from the back N Ratanbala roamed in the ball through ESU custodian in the early period of the match, 6 min, to hand over the lead to KRYPSA.

ESU came back after being down one goal and made several raids in KRYPSA's territory.

The ploy of pressing more players up front was rewarded when ESU was awarded a penalty by the referee.

The spot kick was successfully converted by Lalam Haokip in the 9 min.

After the early exchanges, the tempo of the match continued to remain high with both the teams playing some attacking football.

The crowd also back the teams and appreciate the exchanges.

The death lock was broken in 23 min when Th Sunita's strike found the back of ESU net after dogging her defender and hand over the lead back to KRYPSA.

The lead was protected by KRYPSA till the breather.

After half time, ESU showed urgency to come back into the match.

ESU was rewarded for the never die spirit when Th Ranjita shook the net of KRYPSA in the 58 min of the match.

Both the teams could not added further goals to their team account and stayed in parity till the end.

After a short break referee directed both the teams to move toward the spot kick to decide the winner.

In the shootout, KRYPSA and ESU converted all the initial spot kicks.

In all ESU successfully converted 8 spot kicks while KRYPSA converted 9 and finally became the champion.

Later, Soraisham Ronika Memorial trophy was handed to the winner by Th Lokeshor, Speaker of Manipur Legislative Assembly.

In addition to the trophy, KRYPSA got richer by rupees 15,000 while the defeated finalist, ESU, settled with rupees 10,000 and the runners up trophy.

In appreciation of the players, Lokeshor also handed over rupees 5 thousand each to the finalist teams.

Other winners are: Ng Sweety (ESU) as Best defender; L Lingthoingambi (KRYPSA) wins the Best Goal Keeper; Lalum Haokip (ESU) � Best Striker and AMMA Football team was awarded Best Fair Play Team.

The tournament that began from March 22 at Khuman Lampak Main Stadium with 7 teams was organised by Imphal East Football Association under the supervision of All Manipur Football Association.