Thursday, December 08, 2005

Bend It Like.........S. K. Somaiya Football Team

By Sanket ‘not a fan of david beckham’ Kambli

By the time this article goes to print, the final match to decide the best college football team of Mumbai University may have been already played.
And irrespective of the result, this team of S.K. Somaiya should receive more than a standing ovation for the feat they have already achieved. Because; this is the first S. K. Somaiya football team, to enter the finals of this event, which began in September. They bettered their last year’s performance, when they managed to reach the semis.
And I wouldn’t be surprising to see them stun everyone and lift the cup by winning the final. This is because; they have stormed into the finals of this tourney carrying the tag of underdogs, all along. An all their detractors who think they are just a motley crew, who got lucky, are completely wrong. This prolific team put up explosive performances to register convincing wins (say, 3-1 against Xaviers), with only one drawn. And these performances came against local football powerhouses like St. Andrews, Khalsa, Rizvi, Xaviers, and Thakur.
This attacking team which has players playing at club level is equally good at defending, with just one goal let in, in 5 matches.
Up front this team has Kunal Prasad and Sonu Thapa, while the midfield playmakers are Amit Yaday, Omkar Sawant, Mohnish Bhambre, and Vivek Yadav. And before any opponent striker dreams about getting a one-on-one with their goalie Nitesh Thakur, will have to go through their wall like defense consisting of Gautam Sardar, Sumit Ghavale, Navin Sadul, and Sachin Shinde. And this team has got good bench strength of some tenacious players like John Paul, Ramesh Peddy, Jude Nunes, Srikant Mokal, Prem Yadav, Vishal Prasad, Elvis Colaco, and Subhash Singh.
The credit of canalizing, the youthful exuberance of this team into a winning combo, must go to, Prof. Ravikant Sangurde.

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