Shillong, March 12: Lawsohtun SC reached the final of the Assam Rifles Invitational Football Cup for the second time in as many years with a 1-0 victory over Smit SC in the last-four stage at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Polo, here on Sunday.
They will now meet Assam Rifles Laitkor in the title fight at the same venue on Tuesday. Assam Rifles defeated Eastern Pirates SC 3-0 in the second semi in the afternoon.
Lawsohtun captain Donborlang Nongkynrih scored the only goal of the hard fought early morning contest in the third minute following an error by the opposition. The game was a rematch of last year’s final, which Smit won 2-0.
Both clubs went all out for the win seeking to get a chance to vie for the coveted cup and Smit could feel unlucky that none of their attempts on goal came off.
Two examples of these came in the 75th minute when W Nongkhlaw hit the upright and, in a follow-up manoeuvre, saw Lawsohtun goalie B Sten pull off a terrific leap to put his shot out. Sten had a fantastic day under the bar, pulling off at least six saves to ensure his team came through victorious.
In the other match of the day, tournament lead scorer Mani Chetry recorded a brace while his team mate LR Zuala produced one goal on the way to Assam Rifles’ victory.
Though the scoreline was rather one-sided, the result belied the fierce fight put up by Eastern Pirates; Assam Rifles only claimed their second and third goals right at the end of the match.
The jawans looked a little more likely to score in the opening few minutes, although the Pirates did have at least two shots on target in the same amount of time, even if these were not so threatening.
The opening goal came in the 22nd minute, though it could be traced to events a few moments earlier. In the 19th Anil Singh’s attempt struck the crossbar and went out, but while moving to try and block the ball, Eastern Pirates’ goalkeeper W Kharsati had a heavy collision with the upright and required medical attention.
The resulting goal kick was taken by a defender, who passed it around before the ball was finally kicked towards Kharsati. Perhaps still a little dazed from his recent collision, Kharsati effected an ineffectual pass, which was intercepted by the lurking Assam Rifles players and it was Chetry who finished things off with the goal.
Kharsati, however, made up for this with two fine saves in the following few minutes and the halftime score ended 1-0 in favour of Assam Rifles.
The start of the second session saw Eastern Pirates with more of the ball and they made more attacking moves forward, but they could not quite get the better of the jawans’ defence.
Almost against the run of play, Chetry doubled his team’s lead after receiving a long ball on the left flank and guiding it past the opposition custodian in the 90th minute for his eighth goal of the competition. Despite this setback five minutes of stoppage time gave Eastern Pirates some hope, but this was ended two minutes in after Zuala put the ball in to make it 3-0.
Lawsohtun and Assam Rifles will now receive a day’s welcome break before heading to the final on Tuesday at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in what promises to be an eagerly contested clash.
