Malaysians go down but make a point

NEW DELHI, October 13: Victoria Institution (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) boys' performance should act as a lesson for most foreign teams participating in the Subroto Cup football tournament.
The school had fielded a team in the junior (U-17) category last year but entered the tournament this year with its sub-junior (U-14) boys squad. While the seniors had crashed out in the group stage, the smaller kids did not disappoint, making it to the semi-finals.
The Malysians lost 0-5 to a much stronger team, Green Wood HS School (Dimapur, Nagaland) on Saturday, but the school had made a point.They had progressed and their boys fought all the way.
If some other teams had treated the tournament the way the Malaysians did, the organisers would have been spared the agony of seeing depleted squads taking field or not turning at all, and the spectators would not have had to sit through drab contests.
"Our senior team did not look impressive enough, so there was no use bringing them. These kids were in better shape to compete," Malaysian team coach Shamsul Kamar said.
After blanking Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Vadodara 6-0 and Govt. Sr Sec School, Car Nicobar 3-0 in the group clashes, the Malaysian kids routed Air Force Bal Bharti School, New Delhi 9-0 in the quarterfinals to book the semi-final berth.
On Saturday, they were able to safeguard their citadel in the first half with goalkeeper Ilham Hambali making some good saves, they eventually bowed down to the big guys from North East in the second session.
With Neikvpre opening the scorecard six minutes into the second half of the fixture, Toino and Khreibi supplemented with a brace each to fix their team's title clash against SAI, Lucknow.