India retains Nehru Cup, wins final against Syria

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Higio Zarngam

01 September, 2009

India retained the ONGC Nehru Cup after a close match between the defending champions and Syria. The match remained a tie till the final penalty shootout in the tie breaker. Here, goal keeper and Man of the Match, Subrata Paul made three saves.

FOOTBALL FANS in India received twin celebrations as Salman Khan joined the audience to cheer for Baichung Bhutia’s boys in the final against Syria. India clinched the second consecutive ONGC Nehru cup on Monday night (August 31), in a packed Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi

India won 6-5 against Syria in a match that had many adrenaline rush moments. The winner was undecided until the last minute. The two teams were a goal less at the end of 90 minutes. It’s only during the extra time that the match really begun.

The extra time that was supposed to serve as tie breaker did not turn out to be useful as both the teams scored 1-1. In the 24th minute, Renedy Singh of India scored through a free-kick. But Syria's Ali Dyab equalised the score in the last minute of the match which led to the tie breaker.

A penalty was introduced and goalkeeper Subrata Paul showed his full potential by shouldering India to the win. The Man-of-the-Match Paul made three saves in the penalty shootout, including the last shot from Hamzeh Al Aitoni, triggering celebrations among the crowd. As a fitting climax, Lawrence, Sunil Chettri, Steven Dias, Anwar and Surkumar Singh scored for India.

India thus retained the Cup that it first won in 2007, co-incidentally against Syria itself. There was pressure on Baichung Bhutia’s men as it was for the first time that India was entering in a tournament as the defending champion. Five nations in total including Sri Lanka, Lebanon and Krygystan had participated in the tournament.

The Nehru Cup, once the best tournament in Asia and ranked 18th in the world, was launched in 1982 as an annual tournament and since 1989 was held every alternate year until the last edition at Kochi in 1997. It had to be shelved temporarily because of the non-availability of funds. In 2007, it was revived again and made as a biennial event.