Kolkata: Afghanistan’s Istiqlal High School emerged as the winners of the 58th edition of the Subroto cup, beating Government Model High School 5-4, in the U-14 final held at the Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi.
At the end of regulation time, the scoreline read 0-0 and there was nothing to separate these two teams. But the Afghan boys held their nerve and won the match in the penalty shoot-out where Ali, Mortaza, Mahdi, Farid and Baktas scored for them.
For Government Model High School, the four scorers were Pritam, Balraj, Amandeep and L. Sibijit as they failed to convert their last shot, which was beautifully stopped by Istiqlal High School’s goalkeeper Hasibullah.
It was a battle of the equals as both these sides looked to draw first blood during the regulation time. The Afghans put on a betters show in the right flank in the second half of the match but ended up squandering a lot of chances.
But both teams started to play defensive football at the end of regulation time which took away that element of spark from the match.
One indeed has to feel sorry for the boys from Government Model High School as they had made it to the final in the last edition of the tournament as well where they had lost to Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan 4-2 on penalties.
They had also made it to the finals in the 2014 edition of the tournament where they were beaten 5-4 on penalties by another Indian team in the form of Greenwood School from Dimapur.
Started in 1960, the Subroto Cup is a famous inter-school football tournament named after Subroto Mukherjee, a former Indian Air Force Air Marshal who was an avid football lover as well.