GUWAHATI: The month long 45th National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy, which concluded here failed to create any impact worth mentioning.
Thongh Bengal the best team on paper swith the maximum number of internationals managed of regain the title after a lapse of one year, their performance, except in patches, failed to impress at all, being spared by the skin of their teeth both in the cluster and quarterfinal league stages. After Putting up a little better display against Goa in the semifinals they finally got the trophy, defeating Kerala in a penalty shootout in the final.
While other reputed teams also fared badly, except Goa who shone in patches, none of the junior teams except hosts ‘Assam and Madhya Prasad drew any attention. Holders Punjab dished out one of their ‘worst performances, being eliminated from the quarterfinal stage without registering any victory.
Poor finishing and marksmanship by the top as well as the less reputed Indian for ‘wards again came to the force as many of the league matches ended goalless. While during the first semifinal the winners managed to scrape through by a lone goal scored in the dying moments, in the other one and in the final the fate was decided through penalty shootouts.
Most of the midfield players, except a few, could not scheme properly or create moves, resulting in many of the remaining players confined mostly in the midfield. The deep defense of all the teams looked vulnerable, especially under pressure.
The only silver lining in this championship were the performances of Assam and Madhya Prasad. Though Madhya Prasad most their quarter fall berth, they were tied with Bengal, with five points in the cluster Teague for the top spat having drawn their encounter goalless. They again held Bengal during the scheduled period of play-off ‘match but finally bowed out in tie breaker. Madhya Pradesh’s T:K, Banerjee excelled in all the matches.
Comprising mostly young players and coached by former international Latif, Assam became cluster five league champions ‘with an all-win record. In the quarterfinal league they beat last year’s runners up Karnataka and were denied full points against Punjab because of a controversial decision, Against far superior Goa also they drew first blood, but lost the advantage by an odd goal in three. Their spirited endeavor finally came to a halt when they lost the playoff match to Karnataka in tie-breaker.
‘The most outstanding among the Assamese players were their skipper and linkman Babul Phokan and winger Krishna Sethi. While Babu lorded over the midfield to spearhead most of their attacks with piedisfon, Sethi stretched the rival defense with his fine ball-play and accurate shooting.
They were also ably aided by the other linkman Baharul Islam and defense duo Jewl Bey and Lawrence hero., With some more experience of big-time football and proper coaching they’ were likely to shape into a fine bunch of players.
‘Among the Old Guard central midfielder Sudip Chatterjee of Bengal gave steady performance inall the matches. Taking most of the workload on his shoulder, Sudip dominated the midfield to scheme most of their attacks and also fell back timely to help the defendess. Linkman Sathyan of Kerala also played well and proved to the be the livewire in their side while Goa’s linkman duo Mauricio Alphonso and Lawrence Gomes shone only in patches in their vital match against Bengal
Quite a few goalkeepers like Debashis Mukherjee and Tanumy bose of Bengal, Bibhas Saha of Punjab, Basher of Kamataka and K.T, Chachko of Kerala demonstrated their ability under the bar.
Many of the reputed players who have represented the country, especially from Bengal, looked fatigued and overworked playing too many matches in a year. It high time the All-India Football Federation imposed a restriction on the number of tournaments played in a year. Otherwise the players likely to represent the country in the international sphere may burn all their energy in a short period by participating in too many championships.
Besides unsuitable ground conditions at Silchar, poor supervision by the referees and Jinesmen in many matches came up for sharp criticism.
The Assam Football Association, who organized the championship successfully managed to break even. This was in spite of very poor gate sales, except in the final because of poor gate sales, except in the final because of sponsors and State Government subsidy. For many other States it had turned out to be very difficult to conduct national or similar tournament stre(ching for about a month.
To make this tournament more viable the AIFF should think of changing the format from the present style to a more compact one.
It has been noticed in many nationals that public response is very poor except in some places like West Benbal, Kerala and Orissa. The general standard of soccer which has gone down to agreatextent these days is responsible for this. The players, club officials as well as football authorities should draw up a common programme to ‘enhance the standards and save it from the slow death it seems of be facing.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 21, 1989
