Date:16/05/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/05/16/stories/2007051607872100.htm

Sport - Football

National u-21 meet kicks off today

Principal Correspondent

GUWAHATI: The 16th edition of the National under-21 football will get under way here on Wednesday with host Assam taking on former champion Kerala. The highest age-group football tournament — named after Manindra Dutta Roy — will witness the eight best teams of the country locking horns in the final phase which be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here over the next 12 days.

The host will look to cash in on the tempo that was generated after the senior team won the gold in the National Games held barely two months ago.

Defending champion Bengal, which is placed in the same group as the host, would be gunning for a hat-trick of titles. The Bengal seniors had lost the contest against the home side in the semifinals of the National Games. The youth side, being trained by the same coach, Raghu Nandi, who helped it win the National title last year at Jamalpur (Bihar), would try and avenge that loss. Goa, which missed the tournament last year, will also be looking to break Bengal's hegemony. Goa, which has a dominant presence in the NFL, has not made a mark in the youth level of late. It has won the title on three occasions, but it has been quite some time since it last lifted the trophy.

The eight teams are divided into two groups. Host Assam, Bengal, Kerala and the North Zone champion figure in group A while Goa joins last year's runner-up Punjab, East Zone Champion Services and the North-East champion Mizoram in the other group.

The group league phase will be completed by May 22. The top two teams of each group will progress to the knockout semifinals, which will be played on May 24 and 25 while the final is scheduled on May 27.