ASC fight their way into final

Army outfit post 2-1 win over Student Union

Army Service Corps (ASC) stormed into the finals of the Puttaiah Memorial Cup, defeating Student Union 2-1 in an exciting semifinal match at the Bangalore Football Stadium here on Tuesday.

Goals from Rajib Deb (16th minute) and Ramachandran (70th minute) aided ASC’s cause while Nirmal’s goal off a penalty in the 39th minute kept Students in the game for a while.
The Armymen will face the winner of the second semifinal between Bengaluru FC and South United Wednesday.

Enjoying superior possession in the early minutes of the game, ASC got close to opening the deadlock in the 13th minute when right-back Sudhir played a delightful through ball to set up Sunil Kumar. But Sunil couldn’t get past a determined Balaji, who swiflty got down to his right to gather the ball.

ASC went ahead in the 16th minute, Rajib finding the back of the net with a delightful chip over Balaji.

Students came close to drawing parity time and again, but couldn’t break down the resilient ASC defence. But six minutes before half-time, Nirmal brought them level, calmly slotting home a penalty after he was brought down inside the box.

Minutes later, Students could have gone one up when Nirmal was set up by Ramachandran inside the box. But to his dismay, the ball missed the goal by a whisker.

The second half too was a see-saw battle with the teams coming close to taking the lead. And a 70th minute corner proved to be the difference. Ramachandran headed ASC into the lead from the set-piece and the score remained that way till the final whistle.

In the Prasanna Kumar Memorial tournament for ‘A’ Division teams, Tilak Memorial advanced after defeating Karnataka State Police 8-7 in shoot-out.

The scores were level 1-1 at the end of regulation period.

Results: Puttaiah Memorial Cup: Army Service Corps 2 ( Rajib Deb 16th min, Rmachandran 70th min)  bt Student Union 1 (Nirmal 39th min, pen).

Prasanna Kumar Memorial Cup: Tilak Memorial 1 (Gowatham 64th min) bt Karnataka State Police 1 (Nagendra 33rd min) 8-7 via penalties.