Mahendra Police Club (MPC) blanked out the tournament’s ‘dark horse’ Knight Chess Club (KCC) 2-0 to enter the finals of the 4th Aaha Gold Cup Football Tournament at Pokhara Stadium today.
Excluded from the national camp – Ananta Thapa struck twice to take his team to the forth consecutive final. The match was opposite to expectations as both teams were sluggish. MPC created the first chance when stand-in captain Ananta Thapa nearly got a breakthrough in the 11th minute. Thapa’s powerful shot was brilliantly denied by Min Basnet with a full length dive to the left side.
Then MPC were prematurely celebrating a goal in the 33rd minute but assistant referee Rajesh Shrestha disallowed the goal as ‘off-side’. Finally, Ananta Thapa broke the deadlock scoring an excellent header in the 38th minute, capitalizing the cross off Parbat Pandey from right flank. MPC took the lemon break up 1-0.
After the re-start, MPC were more aggressive than the Jhapa based club and continued their relentless attacks. Thapa was brilliant on the field, and doubled the tally in the 57th minute capitalizing on the cross off Bhola Silwal. KCC played a somewhat lifeless second half despite having more than ten “A” Division players. Deepak Tamang, Binod Lama, Subash Rai, Sunil Subedi, Kamal Bista (NRT), Santosh Basnet, Raj Kumar KC, Raj Kumar Ghising (Sankata), Sachhindra Dhimal (BUC) and Bikash Subba (MFC) couldn’t even thwart the cops den.
Referee Binod KC flashed out two yellow cards each for KCC and MPC. Raj Kumar KC and Sachhindra Dhimal were booked from KCC while Dipak Poudel and Kunjan Shrestha from the MPC side.
“I am not fully satisfied with the boys performance, but we got the win,” MPC coach Yogambar Suwal told reporters. Coach of KCC Indra Bahadur Basnet said, “We are very upset with our boys hollow game in the mid-field”.
On Thursday, tournament favorites African United Club will meet League Champion Manang Marshyangdi Club (MMC) for the Cup.