Bangalore Football Season 2013-14: Observations

• 8/12/2013 In the final of the Puttaiah Memorial today between MEG and HAL, with a goal down, HAL got a chance to come back to the game during injury time. MEG’s Suman handled the ball inside the penalty box from Xavier Vijaykymar’s shot. Referee promptly awarded a penalty to the Aircraftsmen. But HAL old-warhorse, J Murali’s shot hit the post and ricocheted to the field, which was then cleared by an MEG defender. Lucky MEG! 
• 2/12/2013 U-19 international Anto Xavier is in magnificent form, scored a hat trick against LRDE today. Pity that he could not take his team Students Union to final. SAI needed only a point to qualify for the finals, they defeated Independents 2-0 today. 
• 29/11/2013 DYES (from Group A) entered the finals of ‘A Division’ Prasanna Kumar Memorial Trophy. From Group B, SAI only need a point to reach the finals, they play their final group game on December 2. 
• 27/11/2013 MEG and HAL reach final of Puttaiah Memorial. The last group match for HAL is against BEML, who have pulled out of the tournament. 
• 26/11/2013 It's raining goals in the Puttaiah Memorial tourney, Hamza is firing all cylinders! 4 goals against RWF today, wow, that's quite a number!  
• 21/11/2013 The match between HAL and ADE marked the comeback of HAL legend India international namma-Xavier Vijay Kumar, he combined well with RC Prakash. 
  Any idea how many spectators were their to welcome their hero? More than 3000, well that's impressive! 
  And yes, guys, who kept the goal for ADE? Former ITI custodian Mark Maskerhnas! 
• 21/11/2013 Sehlenmang Dimngel, mark this name guys, his strike rate is 100% - 3 goals from as many matches!  
   
• 20/11/2013 What is wrong with a public sector team like KGF Academy – BEML? With limited resources, they have put up a decent show in I-League Second Division last season’s (http://www.gcsstars.com/2013/02/i-league-2-division-fixture-south.html), and now they've withdrawn from Puttaiah Memorial Trophy. That’s definitely a bad sign for #BangaloreFootball. 

• 20/11/2013 One the positive side, I see U-19 international Anto Xavier coming back to the game after a long injury-layoff. He’s playing for A Div team Students Union in the ongoing Prasanna Kumar Memorial Trophy and scored 2 goals from 3 matches. Let us all wish him luck and hope he continues his good form. 

I-league 2 Division: Fixture - Group A - KGF Academy

Group A - Bhopal

• March 9, 2013: Samaleshwari SC 1 Vs KGF Academy 1
• March 11, 2013: KGF Academy 1 (Inola Ifiyema) Vs DSK Shivajians 
• March 13, 2013: George Telegraph 1 Vs KGF Academy 3 (Inola David-28', Rajesh-52', Inola Ifiyema-69')
• March 15, 2013: KGF Academy 1 Vs Kohima Komets  1
  
• March 17, 2013: Langsning 4 Vs KGF Academy  0
  
• March 19, 2013: KGF Academy 2 Vs Kenkre FC  2
  
• March 21, 2013: Rangdajied United 3 Vs KGF Academy 1
• March 25, 2013: KGF Academy Vs Delhi United Soccer Club

I-league 2 Division groupings

City-wise list

• Kolkata – EMTA Mohammedan Sporting, Kalighat Milan Sangha, Techno Aryan, George Telegraph Sports Club, Bhowanipore Club (added later), Southern Samiti
• Guwahati – Green Valley Sports Club
• Bangalore - South United, KGF Academy (added later)
• Goa – Vasco Sports Club
• Shillong  – Royal Wahingdoh, Rangdajied United FC, Langsning FC
• Mumbai - Kenkre Sports, Dodsal Sports, PIFA Sports,
• Delhi - Hindustan FC, Simla Youngs, Delhi United Soccer
• Odhisa - Samaleshwari Sporting
• Aizawl, Mizoram - Aizwal FC, Luangmual FC (added later)
• Kohima, Nagaland  - Kohima Komets
• Pune – DSK Shivajains
• Kochi/Kerala - Eagles FC, Josco 
  

Group A - Bhopal	Group B - Indore	Group C - Bangalore
- Delhi United  - DSK Shivajians  - George Telegraph  - Kenkre FC  - KGF Academy  - Kohima Komets  - Langsning FC  - Rangdajied United  - Samaleshwari Sporting	- Aizwal FC  - Aryan  - Bhowanipore Club  - Green Valley  - Josco FC  - Mohammedan Sporting  - PIFA  - Royal Wahingdoh  - Simla Youngs	- Dodsal FC  - Eagles FC  - Hindustan FC  - Kalighat Milan Sangha  - Luangmual FC  - South United  - Southern Samity  - Vasco

BEML KGF Academy’s turn to gear up for I-League Division 2

Good news for the football lovers...

AIFF has approved BEML KGF Academy’s request to play in I-League Division 2!
The team has had a poor run in this season, came 5th in BDFA Super Division. KGF Academy won last year’s BDFA Super Division title – http://www.gcsstars.com/2012/07/george-hoover-trophy-to-kgf-academy.html
 
They’ve been playing in the Division 2 qualifiers since last 3 seasons. Here’s a performance analysis for all these years - http://www.gcsstars.com/2012/02/as-i-league-ii-division-qualifiers.html

George Hoover Trophy to KGF Academy

The result was already out, Super Division champion KGF Academy (BEML) defeated HAL 2-1 in an exhibition match played top two Super Division teams. 

Attacking medio Dada Khalander gave KGF Academy the lead in 12^th minute. Veteran striker RC Prakash reduced the margin for HAL in the first half. 

Striker Stephen, who has been scoring consistently for KGF Academy netted the winner in the 55^th minute of the match. Top scorer with 11 goals in Super Division, Stephen, also earned the Best Player award. 

Shri  KG Bopaiah, Honorable Speaker of Karnataka State Assembly gave away George Hoover Trophy to KGF Academy. Also, the winning team bagged a cash bonanza of 50,000 rupees given by KSFA. HAL got richer by 30,000 rupees.

• Super Division Winner: KGF Academy
• Runners up: HAL
• Best Player: Stephen (KGF Academy)
• Highest Scorer: Stephen (KGF Academy)
• Promising Player: Raj Kiran (ADE)

HAL posts a convincing win against BEML

HAL 4 (Ajitkumar Singh-52', 77', RC Prakash-58'[p], 76') defeats BEML 2 (Khalander-22'[p], Stephen-43')

Other than HAL rallying strongly in the second half and scoring 4 goals, there were few highlights in a keenly contested HAL-BEML game:

• National referee Vijaya Kumar, famous for his no-nonsense attitude, churned out as many as 7 yellow and one red card.
  Surely something that didn’t go well with HAL coach Chandrasekhar!
•  BEML coach and former international player Raman Vijayan taking field in the 63^rd minute to a rousing welcome from a decent crowd.

BEML started splendidly scoring two goals via Dada Khalander (penalty) and Stephen in the first half. Ajitkumar pulled one quickly to reduce in the margin in the second half. 

BEML coach went on an attacking mode by bringing himself by replacing a defender. The ploy which did bear any fruit other than conceding 3 goals in quick succession. BEML defense look too feeble and HAL fully utilized the opportunity.

Later Raman explained his rationale of fielding himself as his injury-plagued side is not having enough players fit players. 

With only a match left HAL is leading the pack, BEML's prospect received a major dent after today's loss. 

Super Sunday when HAL take on MEG!

Performance analysis - KGF Academy in I-League II Division Qualifiers

As the I-League II Division Qualifiers comes to the penultimate day and the qualifiers are almost decided, let’s take a look at the performance of the only Bangalore connection this time, KGF Academy. 

KGF Academy might have failed to qualify this time, but they ended their campaign on a high note, especially, after losing first four rounds on a trot.

Coach Raman Vijayan always maintained that his boys were losing, despite of being a better side on the ground. The coach said, "Team is playing well, but we're missing chances, and at the end conceding goals". 

"Everybody is praising our team, but we are losing because of lack of match exposure." added Raman.

KGF Academy lacking big-time match exposure - something I anticipated much before. Conceding late goals proved to be a serious area of concern, and that happened in two matches. 

Well, we all hoped his team will continue playing well and most importantly get some points. 

The last three matches looked a different KGF Academy, winning by big margins – 14 goals in total. Most importantly, Nigerian striker Emmanuel Okoro scoring all seven goals in the last match, making his tally to 10.

Clinical striker, Okoro, who turned out JCT few seasons back is one of the foreign players that KGF Academy have in their ranks. 

Also, Okoro, played for a super division team in Kolkata, is all praise for the KGF coach, “Very nice coach I’ve ever meet in Indian football. He is really nice to everybody, we’re like brothers and friends.” 

“With this coach, the team will can go very far”, adds the Nigerian.

Here’s their I-League II Division campaign for 2011-12:

• R1: KGF Academy (Stephen–36') 1 lost to Mohammedan Sporting, Kolkata 4 (Stanley Cyprian–30', Sankar Sil–34', Surabuddin Mullick–54', Alfred K Jaryan–57')
• R2: KGF Academy 0 lost to Simla Youngs, New Delhi 1 (89'-Junya Kato)
• R3: KGF Academy 0 V lost to s Vasco, Goa 3 (Andrew Igago 14', Gerose Oliveria 31', Esha Alihah 77')
• R4: KGF Academy 0 lost to Langsing Sports Club, Meghalaya 1 (Yinka Joel Sunday-22')
• R5: KGF Academy 4 (Stephen-3', Emmanuel Okoro-6', 55', Murugappan-67') defeated Golden Threads, Kerala 2 (Arun KJ-59', Jimmy Abraham-89')
• R6: KGF Academy 3 (Emmanuel Okoro-39', Amoes-41', Monday Ugboji-81') defeated PIFA Colaba, Mumbai 1 (Nagesha Swamy-44')
• R7: KGF Academy 7 (Emmanuel Okoro-8', 23', 26', 43', 45', 47', 67') defeated Luangmual, Mizoram 1 (H Lalthangliana-10')

Year-wise performance of KGF Academy

Year	Pl	W	D	L	GD	P	Position
2009-10*	6	2	3	1	+4	9	3/7
2010-11*	6	1	0	5	-16	3	6/7
2011-12	7	3	0	4	+2	9	4/8

^*Team played as BEML in the 2010-11 and 2009-10 season.

I-league Division 2 qualifiers

The only Bangalore connection in I-League other than HAL, BEML, is all set to take part in the qualifiers of I-league Division 2.

The latest is that the public sector team has been rebranded as KGF Academy - keeping aligned with the AFC guidelines, they’ve dropped their company name. Certainly a positive step in long run and KGF Academy is the first public sector enterprise to achieve this feat.

KGF Academy (erstwhile BEML) had a disappointing outing in the local league last season. They came in 6^th position in a 12-team Super Division League. However, since then, the team is under the tutelage of former star striker, Raman Vijayan. The AFC coaching license B holder, Raman, is trying to build this new team with the promising players. He has retained only 6 players from last season.

KGF academy is placed in Group C along with Mohammedan Sporting, Vasco, Golden Threads, Luangmual FC, Simla Youngs, Langsing FC, and PIFA Colaba.

All the matches in the group leg will be played in Delhi.

The top two teams from each group will qualify for the final round. The final round will be played in one of the two venues – Siliguri and Gangtok. After relegating from I-League Division 1, ONGC have been directly seeded into the final round.

• Round 1: Wednesday, February 1, 2012 KGF Academy 1 (Stephen–36') Vs Mohammedan Sporting, Kolkata 4 (Stanley Cyprian–30', Sankar Sil–34', Surabuddin Mullick–54', Alfred K Jaryan–57')
  
• Round 2: Saturday, February 4, 2012 KGF Academy 0 Vs Simla Youngs, New Delhi 1 (89'-Junya Kato)
• Round 3: Tuesday, February 7, 2012 KGF Academy 0 Vs Vasco, Goa 3 (Andrew Igago 14', Gerose Oliveria 31', Esha Alihah 77')
• Round 4: Friday, February 10, 2012 KGF Academy 0 Vs Langsing Sports Club, Meghalaya 1 (Yinka Joel Sunday-22')
• Round 5: Monday, February 13, 2012 KGF Academy 4 (Stephen-3', Emmanuel Okoko-6', 55', Murugappan-67') Vs Golden Threads, Kerala 2 (Arun KJ-59', Jimmy Abraham-89')
  
• Round 6: Thursday, February 16, 2012 KGF Academy 3 (Emmanuel Okoko-39', Amoes-41', Monday Ugboji-81') Vs PIFA Colaba, Mumbai 1 (Nagesha Swamy-44')
  
• Round 7: Sunday, February 19, 2012 KGF Academy 7 (Emmanuel Okoro-8', 23', 26', 43', 45', 47', 67') Vs Luangmual, Mizoram 1 (H Lalthangliana-10')