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Manipur is champion

By Amitabha Das Sharma

The Manipur team which won the Santosh Trophy defeating Kerala in the final at Imphal on Tuesday. — Photo: Sushanta Patronobish

IMPHAL NOV. 5. Tomba Singh's golden goal helped host Manipur to beat defending champion Kerala in the final of the 58th National Football Championship for the LG Santosh Trophy at the Main Stadium in Khuman Lampak Sports Complex on Tuesday.

As the regulation time failed to break the 1-1 deadlock, the match went into extra-time and Tomba Singh attained the heroic feat with a thunderous finish in the fourth minute that created history for Manipur.

Beginning with the maiden title triumph in the long history of the tournament, Manipur also accomplished the credit of winning the coveted trophy hosting the meet for the first time.

In the end, the title seemed a justification of the rich sporting tradition of the state, which has football topping the popularity charts. Having already established a monopoly in women's football, the latest accomplishment by men helped this North-Eastern State complete its supremacy in the sport in the country.

New laws, empowering the states recall players originating from them for the tournament, by the All India Football Federation seemed to help the host as it sourced the best from across the country to confirm its status on top of the National hierarchy.

Both fortune and form seemed to desert the defending champion, Kerala, in the crucial match. The southern powerhouse fell at the last post with just a below par performance. The final encounter marked a contrast of sorts.

Manipur, managing to enter the title round through shoot-outs in a controversy-laden semifinal played twice against Goa, seemed to peak at the right moment, while Kerala failed to justify its favourite status seeing its performance hit the nadir.

Manipur made a bright start gaining an early control over the proceedings. Working on a fine rhythm brought about by a balance in all the departments, the host pushed the visitor to defensive immediately after the kick-off.

A couple of abortive tries at the goal in the first few minutes seemed to set the host for the strike which came up in the seventh minute through its forward Tiken Singh. The impetus of the Manipur attacks pried the Kerala defence open time and again, but the host failed to find the target from close.

The magic throw of Utamkumar Singh came to Manipur's rescue yet again, the same player who used his long arm to a good effect against Tamil Nadu in a crucial quarterfinal encounter, as the defender sent the ball deep into the Kerala box and Tiken headed the ball home to set the packed galleries in a wild celebration.

The goal appeared to subdue Kerala greatly as the defending champion seemed to be involved in a crisis. Kerala had been showing starting problems all through the tournament but the team always looked to settle down by the second quarter of the game and won with considerable ease.

The resolve seemed to desert the visitor in the crucial match as both its famed forward line, comprising captain Asif Saheer, Sylvester Ignatius and Abdul Hakkim, and the midfield appeared to be cramped facing a spirited host.

Kerala instituted a couple of changes early in each half replacing seasoned schemer Suresh Babu with Abdul Noushad (16th minute) and then put V. Shiva Kumar in place of right-back K. Bineesh in the 55th minute.

This did not alter the visitor's fortune as the equaliser remained elusive. With the match almost nearing its end, Kerala got the equaliser from a freak move.

Naushad took a lob from Muhammad Shafeeq and made no mistake chipping over the advancing Manipur custodian, H. Noren Singh.

However, Kerala's joy was short-lived, as Manipur got back the decisive lead through mideo Tomba Singh, whose thunderous right-footer crashed in the top corner of the goal.

There was some controversy following the goal as Kerala disputed the ball to have sneaked from outside even as referee S.M. Balu signalled a goal.

The Kerala goal had two layers of netting and the ball got trapped between the two covers causing the confusion. The decision was upheld as the All India Football Federation president sought a video playback from Doordarshan, which was telecasting the match, and put to rest all speculations.

Apart from the glittering trophy donated in the name of late Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhury, the Maharaja of Santosh, Manipur received the winner's purse of Rs. 3,00,000, while Kerala got the Kamala Gupta Trophy as the runner-up and an amount of Rs. 1,50,000.

Manipur monopolised the individual awards beginning with the `LG most-valuable-player-of-the-tournament' award which went to James Singh, while Tomba Singh was adjudged the most valuable player of the match. Noren Singh was named the best goalkeeper of the tournament and Bijen Singh the highest scorer award with a tally of nine goals to his credit.

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