NEW DELHI, July 23: Royal Rangers and Delhi Veterans won the Delhi Soccer Association (DSA)-SAIL A and B Division titles in the finals played at the Ambedkar Stadium, here today. With this success, both teams have qualified for Senior and A divisions, respectively, for next year.In the A division final, Royal Rangers edged past State Bank of India (SBI) by 5-4 in the sudden death via tie-breaker, after both sides were failed to score during the regulation time.
The play was confined to the mid-field most of the time. Both sides missed numerous chances. In the closing stages SBI were quite close to open the score but forward R. Subramaniam and Anadhi Barua failed at the target.
In the tie-breaker, Eric Benny, Dio Siem and Kamal were the heroes for Royal Rangers who scored while Deepak Robinson and Andrew Christie wasted the crucial chances. For SBI, Anadhi Barua, Abijoy Basu and Rajesh Joshi coverted while K. Subramianam and Tarun Roy missed the targets.
In the sudden-death session, Royal Rangers' Jahouva Siam and Ricky Chhachhuak were successful while for SB only Ashok Sharma was successful.
Earlier, in B division final match, Delhi Veterans prevailed over NJN Sports Club 2-1 to emerge winners and qualify for A division league from next year.
Leading 2-0 at break, Veteran dominated the initial half. Rajesh Lamba (10th minute) and Madan Lal (15th mt) scored for Delhi Veterans while Om Bahadur Thapa reduced the margin for NJN in the 55th minute. In the Senior Division Football League matches of Group I and II, City Football Club, Tarun Sangha and Hans Club emerged winners.
City beat Simla Youngs 1-0 with the lone goal coming from Anand Bhandari in the 20th minute. Sandeep Yadav scored in the 15th minute to shape Tarun Sangha's 1-0 win over Garhwal Heroes. Hans also prevailed over South India by a solitary goal margin. Jitender was the scorer.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.