Brazilian School Enter Subroto Cup Final

Colegio Estadul Santo Antonio, as expected, entered the Under-17 boys final after beating Ragunan Sports School, Indonesia 3-1 in the second semifinal of the 55th Subroto Cup international football tournament at Ambedkar Stadium here on Saturday.

The Santo Anotnio school will take on MSP School from Kerala in the final to be played on October 20.

It was sheer on-field brilliance of the Brazilian team that attracted most attention of the spectators. No doubt, the Indonesian boys did play well, but if one were to take into calculation the maximum ball possession, then the Brazilians were the hands down winners.

The winners' strategy was simple and straight. Keep the ball possession and pass it on for their strikers to do the finishing job. So much so, an individual brilliance from Romulo saw the team take lead as early as in the ninth minute.

Receiving the ball from centre, the Brazilian forward moved ahead sidestepping a few defenders and slotted the goal in. But the counter move did present a chance for the Indonesians to reduce the margin. Unfortunately for striker Fadel Ali, who is normally a sure shot, sent the ball out as it hissed past the post.

Undeterred, the Indonesians were bent on attacking the Brazilian citadel and they did it with quite a force. As a result, Egi Maulana Vikki made most of a deflection following a free-kick and found the equalizer for his team close to the first half.

The change of ends saw the Brazillian school a completely transformed team and their players used their head to great effect when Alex Da Conceicao provided the lead in the 45th minute. As if this was not enough, Loran Romualdo headed in a free-kick in the 63rd minute to round off the tally.