Government Girls Senior Secondary School from Hisar won the Under-17 title of the 55th Subroto Cup football tournament, beating Assam's Kiyang Kasiya Memorial Tribal School 3-0 at the Ambedkar Stadium here today.
The winners rightfully claimed the purse of Rs.3.5 lakh while the runners-up had to be satisfied with Rs.2 lakh.
It was mission accomplished for the Haryana girls who made their debut in the tournament. They played hard and remained the only team not to have conceded a goal in the competition.
The champion side which had a sturdy defence and fleet-footed forwards in their ranks did not have to work really hard against the Tribal School. No doubt, the Assam outfit had its moments and also worked well but it was found wanting against the tight defence of Haryana.
The Hisar girls took their own sweet time, first to size up their opponents before opening up. Their midfield worked like a well-oiled machine and created opportunities for their forwards always lurking around near the box.
Yet, their first goal came only in the 28th minute when Renu, exploiting the gap, went in with the ball and put it past the Assam goalkeeper. But they picked up the momentum only after changing end and making deep inroads Pooja added to the toll in the 40th minute to more or less ensure the title.
The desperate Assam girls played their heart out but breaching the rival defence was always going to be difficult as Haryana made it impregnable. On the other hand, Santosh worked on a defence lapse to strike the team's third goal in the 46th minute and with that it was all over for Assam.
The winning coach, Ashwini Kumar, admitted that he was a satisfied man. "Today our girls played like true champions. It was a great improvement from their poor performance in the quarters and semis. The wingers did a fantastic job, feeding the strikers. Equally solid was the display by our back four," he said.
Best player of the tournament Renu, who topped the goal chart with 12 strikes, said, "This win would, hopefully, change the mindset of the people back home and they will encourage girls to participate in all sports. I am really happy that I have won an HCL laptop. I will be able to watch my favourite player Messi's videos and also watch movies.
