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Guru Tegh Bahadur tournament: Girls skip school exams to beat opponents in football semis
Sports Excel Girls and SKF Girls send Deccan XI girls’ teams packing at the semi-final matches played at the College of Engineering Pune (COEP) ground on Saturday
Sports Excel Girls and SKF Girls send Deccan XI girls’ teams packing at the Guru Tegh Bahadur football tournament semi-final matches played at the College of Engineering Pune (COEP) ground on Saturday.
Sports Excel beat Deccan XI Girls ‘A’ 1-0 courtesy a goal from Vaishnavi Joshi and SKF Girls thrashed Deccan XI ‘B’ 3-0 after Raheen Shaikh bagged a hat trick. Shaikh bagged a brace in the quarter-finals against Pune Soccer Club, and now sits atop the goal-scoring charts in the women’s category.
Academics hurdle
Academics hurdle
Several players from Sports Excel and SKF Girls were supposed to appear for internal school exams after the match. Sports Excel, who started the game at 8:30 am, had three players who were to attend school exams at 10 am. Sneha Sandbhor, Natasha Swamy and Grishma Jagtap kept their nerves to help their side nab an important victory and headed off to their school, Vidya Bhavan, just in time to appear for exams.
Naomi Vase, the Sports Excel coach who played as their goalkeeper, said that the girls risked their internal exams to play the crucial semi-final. “It is inspiring to see a commitment like that from the team,” said Noami.
SKF Girls’ hat-trick hero, Raheen Shaikh, missed her school’s exam to play in the semi-final. The 14-year-old Class 10 student of Urdu Prathamik School in Rupinagar, Pimpri, said the exam was important, but she could not let her team play without her. Shaikh’s teammates, Sanjana Gupta and Nisha Parse, skipped school to play the game. Parse, who is the team captain, said, “I am the captain and if I am not there for the team at this stage, then it makes no sense,” said Parse.
GOG thrash Poona Social; face CMS Falcon in final.
Game of Goals (GOG) FC humiliated Association Poona Social 6-0, while CMS Falcon won 5-4 on penalties against Deccan XI ‘A’ in the senior category semi-finals. Fomer DSK Shivajians midfielder, Prakash Thorat bagged a hat trick while Paresh Shivalkar, Kartik Raju and Bhunesh Pillai managed to get their names on the score-sheet as GOG FC completely outclassed Poona Social.
GOG FC launched three attacks in the first four minutes which unsettled the Poona Social defence from the start. The wait for the first goal ended in the 26th minute when 38-year-old Paresh Shivalkar’s strike from the edge of the box found the top-right corner of the goal. GOG doubled their advantage just two minutes after the opener when Bhunesh Pillai headed in from Aman Madurai’s cross. Poona Social were three goals down in the 30th minute as Madurai scooped in another cross which found Prakash Thorat at the end and the striker simply tapped it in for their third goal in 4 minutes.
In the second half, Poona Social launched a barrage of early attacks, but were caught on the counter-attack by Thorat. The former DSK Shivajians midfielder skipped past a complacent defence and slotted home GOG’s fourth goal, ten minutes into the second half. Shortly after the goal, GOG hit the framework twice as the Poona Social defence looked absolutely disheartened. In the 60th minute, Kartik Raju unleashed a venomous strike from the right wing towards the goal. The goalkeeper failed to hold the ball and ended up dropping it into the goal.
Thorat completed his hat trick in the dying minutes of the game after Raju escaped his marker on the left flank and provided a sublime low cross towards Thorat, who carefully placed the ball into the bottom-right corner to score GOG’s sixth and final goal of the game, shortly before the final whistle put Poona Social out of their misery.
In the other semi-final of the day, a controversial moment including the captain, Rohil Bhokare, stalled the game for fifteen minutes. Bhokare has been suspended by the Pune District Football Association (PDFA) on the account of violent conduct which took place earlier this year. However, PDFA Secretary, Pradeep Pardeshi, clarified that Bhokare has only been suspended from playing in PDFA’s league and is free to partake in any other invitational tournament.
After the clarification, the match resumed. Falcons took the lead in the first half through Bhokare, who converted from a beautiful free-kick. However, Deccan XI levelled the game in the second half through Ritesh Garudapalli, who converted from the penalty spot. The game finished 1-1 in normal time and went on to penalties. Deccan XI’s Sharon Kakade missed the only penalty in the shoot-out as Falcons nabbed a 5-4 victory.
Results - Semi-Finals.
Women:
Sports Excel Girls 1 (Vaishnavi Joshi 25’) bt Deccan XI Girls ‘A’ 0
SKF Girls 3 (Raheen Shaikh 11’, 13’, 29’) bt Deccan XI Girls ‘B’ 0
Seniors:
Game of Goals FC 6 (Paresh Shivarkar 26’, Bhumesh Pillai 28’, Prakash Thorat 30’, 40’, 65’, Kartik Raju 60’) bt Association Poona Social 0
CMS Falcon 1 (Rohil Bhokare 24’) (5) bt Deccan XI ‘A’ 1 (Ritesh Garudapalli 51’ pen) (4)
