East Bengal start their campaign in the SAFF Women’s Club Championship in style
Indian Women’s League (IWL) champions East Bengal women started their maiden SAFF Women’s Club Championship campaign, trouncing the Bhutanese champions Transport United Ladies 4-0 in their opening group fixture on Sunday. Their Ugandan striker Fazila Ikwaput (36, 72) struck the brace while youngster, Sulanjana Raul (60), and the Ugandan midfielder, Resty Nanziri (63), scored one goal each for Red and Gold Brigade in Kathmandu. Player of the Match Fazila mentioned that this is just the beginning, and the team will be aiming something bigger. This tournament will help them identify what they need to do to move ahead. East Bengal started the domination from the beginning and was able to create plenty of space on the wings for Sulanjana and Soumya to make quick runs. Still, they had to wait 35 minutes for their opening goal. On a counterattack, Soumya found some space on the right flank, which she made full use of before laying an accurate cross to Fazila, who headed home cleanly. After that, the Indian side got plenty of chances in the opening half, but they couldn’t convert them, and the score-line remained unchanged at halftime. In the second half, they showed better chemistry in their forward line, which led to two beautiful team goals near the 60-minute mark, from Sulanjana and Nanziri. In the 72nd minute, Sulanjana again showed her magical footwork to cut past her marker and assisted a chip ball to Fazila, who calmly controlled it before completing her brace. East Bengal is now in joint top position with Nepal’s APF Club with 3 points. They will next take on Pakistan’s Karachi City FC in the second group match on 11th December.
Marquez feels FC Goa needs to qualify for ACL-2 every year to improve quality
FC Goa’s Spanish coach Manolo Marquez believes the team must have to make a habit of playing at the highest level to grow up. He means by saying ‘highest level’ is the AFC Champions League-2 at least. After Goan outfit edged past East Bengal via a tie-breaker to lift the Super Cup for the third time on Sunday in Margao, Goa Marquez said, “We have to play competitive games every year. We need to qualify every season to increase our level because when you play against better players, your level improves and at the moment, I mean ACL-2 is a much better competitive tournament.” East Bengal’s assistant coach, Bino George felt his team created better opportunities, taking the game to the defending champion. “We had more chances at the home of FC Goa. We played a good game, but penalty shootouts are unpredictable. We dominated the first half entirely,” he said. Marquez, though, felt the goalless draw in the end was a fair reflection of the game. “I don’t share this opinion. There were some moments for both teams. We hit the post twice and had the clearest chances. Both teams were better in certain moments. It was a very tactical game, and the score was fair in my opinion. “I don’t believe too much when people say penalty shoot-outs are lotteries, but today, I felt it was because both teams were completely dead,” he said
BCCI says Rohit and Virat were not forced to play domestic tournament!
The BCCI has revealed that it had never forced India’s two key batsmen Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, to take part in the forthcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy. According to a website report, a BCCI official, who revealed on condition of anonymity when asked about the BCCI dictum that the national stars must participate in the domestic cricket tournaments, stated, “BCCI never forced them to play in Vijay Hazare Trophy. It was purely their decision.” Interestingly, according to media reports across the country, BCCI selection committee chairman Ajit Agarkar and chief coach Gautam Gambhir, both have been repeatedly asking players to return to domestic cricket whenever they have time off. It was also reported that due to the unofficial ‘dictum’ set by the chairman and the chief coach Kohli and Rohit played the Ranji Trophy after returning from the unsuccessful Border-Gavaskar Trophy tour Down Under. However, in the recently concluded ODI series against South Africa, both Rohit and Kohli have shown their consistency and proved indispensible once again in India’s batting line-up. Even coach Gambhir said that he is hoping that Kohli and Rohit continue doing the same in the format, though he refused to give any hint about the 2027 ODI World Cup make-up. “They (Rohit and Kohli) are world-class players and their experience is important in the dressing room. They have been doing it for a long time. Hopefully, they can continue doing the same, which is going to be important in the 50-over format,” Gambhir said at the post-match presser after India beat South Africa 2-1 in the ODI series.
