The Mohun Bagan U-14 team and Sambalpur Academy, Odisha kicked off their campaign on a high note today in the 1st ONGC Himachal Pradesh Youth Football Festival at Nahan.
In a perfect weather for football, the people of Nahan were treated with great exhibition of the game when Mohun Bagan thrashed Calicut Football Academy 9-0 in a Group A match. If that was not enough, Sambhalpur Football Academy provided more to cheer when they pumped in 13 goals against Yamunanagar Football Academy, Haryana in a Group B encounter.
Ferozuddin Mollah opened the scoring for Mohun Bagan as early as in the 3rd minute when he slotted in a Deepankar cross from the left. The duo scored 7 goals in between them – Deepankar scoring 4 goals (14, 18, 59, 80 Mins) while Ferozuddin scoring 3 (3, 57, 72 Mins). Sanchayan and Arghadeep scored one each.
For the Odisha side, Vishnu opened the floodgates in the 6th minute as he went on to score three goals. Shaw and Sukhlal scored a brace with each goal of them coming within minute of each other. Chandan, Damain, Rajouram, Sanjaya, Wahid and Kamaljeet also got their name in the scorers’ list.
Later in the day, Pune FC will take on Malpur Football Academy, Punjab in a Group C match while Prayag United FC will lock horns with Dynamic Soccer Academy, Jandha Sahib.
The four local teams that qualified for the main phase of the tournament are SAI Football Academy Kangra, DPS Solan, DFA Solan and host DFA Sirmour.
SAI Kangra are clubbed with Mohun Bagan and Kalicut Football Academy in Group A while DPS Solan have Sambalpur Football Academy and Yamuna Nagar Football Academy in Group B.
Group C have DFA Solan along with Malpur Football Academy and Pune FC while host DFA Sirmour are clubbed in Group D with Prayag United and Dynamic Soccer Academy Jandha Sahib.
On Friday, all the local teams will be action with SAI Kangra taking on Mohun Bagan in the first match of the day at 11 AM. DPS Solan will face Sambalpur in the 2nd match at 2.30 PM while the 3rd round will see DFA Solan facing Malpur at 5 PM. In the last match of the day, to be played under floodlights at 7 PM, host DFA Sirmour will lock horns with Prayag United SC.
(Himachal Pradesh Football Association Press Release)