By Usha Wagle Gautam
The Nepalese community football team drew first blood by beating South Korea in Asian Community League match at Technical Ground of Qatar Football Association (QFA) recently. The confident Nepali contingent scored eight goals while maintaining a clean sheet. Tripen completed a hat-trick, Prakash scored twice, and Rajkumar, Balkrishna and Dinesh managed to score a goal each.
Sambell, the technical coach of the team, attributed the win to their new strategy.
The Nepali team will play their next match against Sri Lanka on April 9 for a place in the semi-finals. The team’s chairman, Sanjeev Ranabhat, said they are receiving training from both Nepali and Australian coaches to prepare for what they expect to be a tough match.
Twelve teams are participating in the ongoing tournament. Jordan, Lebanon, Japan, Philippines, India and Thailand are in Group A. Indonesia, Nepal, Malaysia, South Korea, Sri Lanka and China are in Group B.
After Sri Lanka, Nepal will face China on April 17. “We have been training for more than a year,” Ranabhat said, “And we have big hopes for this year.”
The tournament requires six players from each team to be younger than 25 years of age.
Nepalese coach Pikkal Subba said his team will play future matches in either 4-2-4 or 4-3-3 formation.
There is also a friendly match planned between the national teams of Nepal and Philippines at Al Arabi Stadium on April 3. Nepali singers Ramji Khand, Manju Poudel and other Filipino artistes will perform at the match. Audience members will also get a chance to win laptops, LCDs, microwave ovens, mobile phones and watches during the match via lucky draw.
TOGETHER: The Nepal community football team before the match.
