Army Red crush a helpless Army Green
Army Red made Army Green pay for their mistakes dearly, as they pumped in goals relentlessly to finish the game 6-1 in their favour on the opening day of the Super Division League, hosted at KSHA stadium, Bangalore. For Army Red, Ignace and Mandish scored a brace and MC Singh and Mundu scored a goal each. For Army Green, it was from Suresh.
Army Red who is amongst the favourites, drew blood early in the game as they scored in the 6th minute courtesy the star Ignace Tirkey’s Field Goal.
A game where there was extremely poor use of the flanks, almost all the attacks run from the center lane. Army Green was good in lean patches and could never match up to the aggression and fitness of Army Red. When 3 goals were scored in quick succession just before the lemon break,
Army Green had only each other’s face to look at.
Post the break, Army Green got in some more energy in to the falling spirits as they thwarted a number of attacks from their opponents. In the meanwhile, Army Red, apparently, lacked the motivation to do anything better. There were a couple of good moves initiated by the forward line of the Greens mostly spearheaded by their most active players Jagbir Singh, Suresh and Wilson but ‘missed chances’ are the 2 words that summarize their plight. As this pattern repeated, in the 58th minute, luck favoured them finally and Suresh scored on a FG just after a PC. The score line read 4-1.
This setback woke up Army Red from the mediocrity that had crept in after the cushion of 4-0 lead. Within 7 minutes, the score read 6-1 with Reds dominating the rest of the game, like the way did in the 1st half.
Army Red has a good defense that marks all the opponent forwards. Had it not been Varun and CS Xalco in their defense, the score line would have read very differently. The forward line of Army Red comprising of R Lakra and S Ali is extremely aggressive and as the tournament progresses, these are the players the top teams will be looking forward to mark.
Army Red got 3 PC in the game where Army Green got 1; neither of them could capitalize on the opportunity.
Earlier, in the 1st game of Super Division League, Madras Engineering Group (MEG) beat Maratha Light Infantry (MIL) by 3-2. Going into the 2nd half with a lead of 1-0, MEG never looked out of control of the game. They took a 2-0 lead and as MIL scored a goal to make it 2-1, they increased the tally to 3-1. For MEG goals were scored by Kiran, Mohan and Poovanna whereas Sravan Kumar for MIL scored a brace.
It may be noted that MIL makes it to the Super Division Phase 2 (ongoing one) because Canara Bank backed out following their injury ridden team. They come in treating this opportunity as an exposure for their very young and inexperienced side. On the other hand, the toppers of Phase 1, MEG, wish to improve their rankings in this ongoing Phase-2. They hope to beat the mediocre teams and hold on the premier teams with a draw.