Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 1: J&K football team lost to Jharkhand by straight four goals to zero in the quarterfinals of the football tournament, held during the National Talent Search and Nurture Programme, organized by School Sports Promotion Foundation (SSPF) at DPS Ghaziabad.
The under-16 J&K missed a golden opportunity in the very start of the match and maintained a very stable defence throughout the first half. Despite strong pressure by opponents, team kept the Jharkhand strikers at bay but missed more opportunities on counters.
The fast paced game took toll on the defence so as to make an unforced error at the close of first half resulting in a soft goal.
Second half saw ever more aggression from J&K boys, desperate to find an equalizer. Couple of opportunities missed and more number of players in opponent half, which surely put Jharkhand under tremendous pressure in second half, also led to some devastating counters on J&K goal.
J&K Skipper and goalkeeper Shreyan Dev Singh Jasrotia came to rescue and made some super saves to maintain that pressure upfront. However, players of J&K, in an attempt to get the goal back, left the defence venerable to fast and repeated Jharkhand counters which led to State team conceding back to back three goals with just few minutes left on the clock.
The match ended 0-4 with J&K boys being praised for showing such a spirit against a team scoring in dozens against opponents.
Team officials Iqbal Singh and Arun Pal Singh Jasrotia requested all the participating schools to look into the aspect of sports development in their schools so that innocent players, who are themselves unaware of these important factors, can compete with preparation at par with players from other regions of the country.
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