Gudmundsson ’tricks India’s fall

Gudmundsson ’tricks India’s fall
Aswin Abraham

Kochi, January 13: The reasonable crowd’s cheering, at times, reached a crescendo but the Indians came off the field with drooping heads. Their spirits were punctured by a formidable opposition. Nothing, not even home advantage could help them.

At the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Iceland spiked the Indian guns in Group B of the Sahara Cup Football Championship on Tryggvi Gudmundsson’s hat-trick (44th, 53rd & 63rd minutes), the tournament’s first one.

To say that India were never in the race would only be stating the truth, save for some fag-end exploits.

Uzbek coach Islam Ahmedov’s decision to play two old warhorses, Vijayan had Bruno Coutinho up-front, raised many an eyebrow. However both came a cropper. Vijayan could hardly extricate himself from his marker in one of his heart-rending games. And when he did break free once, he lobbed the ball over the horizontal in a one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

The Indian goal survived some anxious opening moments including a snap drive from Gudmundsson which goalkeeper Virender Singh managed to punch out. Then followed a teasing cross from the left by Sigurdsson, and Einarsson, unchallenged, failed to connect from the heart of the box.

In the meantime, Hardip Singh Sangha produced some spark by having a look at the Iceland goal on two occasions, first he shot straight to goalkeeper Thorgeirsson from the brink of the box on the left, and then he arrowed a pass to Vijayan which the goalkeeper grabbed.

The Indians left a lot of space between their defence and the midfield and it was this gap the Icelanders utilised to the most for their piercing runs. Skipper Basudev Mondal functioned as a withdrawn medio; Carlton Chapman was a pale shadow of his self. An awfully slow Bruno and Chapman were replaced by Bijen Singh and Alvito in the second session, in a bid to add bite to the attack. Both did raise hopes of an Indian revival in the dying moments but were off target, thus spiralling down the Indian spirits.

Iceland broke the deadlock in the penultimate minute of the opening session, making a mockery of the Indian defence following a free kick taken by Gudmundsson that ricochetted off the defensive wall. All the men in the defence moved up in one line trying in vain to form an offside trap when Benediktsson pounced on the ball and set up his strike partner who ran up, drew Virender out of his line before placing home, wrong-footing the ’keeper.

Even as the Indians tried hard to salvage some pride, Iceland added to their woes eight minutes into the second session with Ancheri donning the role of a villain whose mishit clearance off Benediktsson came to Gundmundsson whose pungent drive from a distance on the right cruised to the near post even as Virender was out of charge.

Gudmundsson piled the agony on the Indians when he chanced upon a loose ball after Deepak Mondal, limping along the defence, following a first-half sliding tackle, back-heeled a pass to Ancheri. This time too, the Indian custodian could offer nothing as Gudmundsson, lurking in the goal area, put the ball beyond Virender’s reach.

Fancied Chile pip Japan 1-0
Strong contenders Chile warded off a late resurgance to carve out a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Japan in a Group-4 league match of the Sahara Millennium Football Tournament at the Salt Lake Stadium here on Saturday night, PTI adds from Kolkata.

The Chileans, billed as the favourites to win the title, struck the lone goal through their star striker Hector Tapia midway through the opening session in a fast-paced exciting encounter.

Tapia found the target in the 34th minute with a crisp right footer, giving no chance at all to the Japanese custodian Toshiyasu Takahara.

The goal was the result of a fast counter attack which saw forward Fernando Martel chip the ball towards defender Moises Villarroel who in turn headed towards the goalmouth. The alert Tapia, who was lurking inside the box, controlled the ball and slotted home from close range.

The goal served as a tonic for the Chileans who began to look much more dangerous whenever they penetrated the rival defence, but were distinctly unlucky not to have increased their lead in the opening session.

The exchanges were more or less shared in the initial stages of the encounter, but the fancied Chileans began to find their bearing soon and unleashed some well-orchestrated raids from both the flanks. The young Japanese players, despite their inexperience, did reasonably well to hold the Chilean forwardline at bay for most part of the first half with the defenders giving little room for manouevering.