Jamshedpur FC Dominates Assam Rifles in Durand Cup Opener

Jamshedpur, July 28, 2024: Sanan Mohammed scored twice to enable Jamshedpur FC to register 3- nil win against the Assam rifled football team in the first match of the group D of the 133rd IndianOil Durand Cup played at the JRD Tata Sports complex on Frida

There was end to end action from the start and the home side had majority of the ball possession and fashioned opportunities a plenty, but it was the Assam Rifles backline that rose to the occasion till the winning goal came in from the second referral of stoppage time by the home team’s Sanan. The second goal for Kerala forward doubled the lead in 68th minute and the third goal was scored by Imran Khan in 86th minute to concluded the match.

Jamshedpur FC Head Coach Khalid Jamil dropped foreign players and had an all-Indian starting 11 with Len Doungel, Sanan Mohammed, Nikhil Barla and Imran Khan forwards. The home side created opportunities from the start and Doungel, Sanan and Barla came very close two to three times but Assam Rifles custodian Shobhan Dev Biswas stood firm to deny them.

Strange as it may sound, Assam Rifles had phases of owning the game through counter-attacks, but the nerve did not hold to sealed those transitions. Porrow It was the Red Miners who got the first goal from Sanan following a corner kick and grabbing a loose ball and shooting it past the keeper.

Dimension of the game changed in the second half as Assam Rifles began to struggle, however J.A.F started dominating with full control and started creating chances. Len Doungel had a clear chance at an open goal and Sanna put it wide while later, Aniket Jadhav whose came on as a substitute in the second half put his header right at the keeper’s grasp. Sanan doubled the lead in the 68th minute of the match, make the final outcome of a very good teamwork.

Jamshedpur continued to attack in search of other goals that they seemed to be fashioning from every possible opportunity. The third goal was scored at the fag end of the match in the 86th minute when Assam Rifles custodian failed to maid a save to a cross from Ashutosh Mehta which fell to Imran Khan who made no mistake in the Finish.

The home side was able to negotiate the remaining minutes, and threw their campaign off to a good start by coming out of the game with all the points.

Durand Cup: The latter is the landmark associated with the development of Football in India.

The Durand Cup is Asia’s oldest and the world’s third oldest football tournament was initially started by the British Indian army for the three Services. The very first edition was organized in Shimla in the year 1888 and after that the tournament was shifted to New Delhi in 1940 which was conducted up to 2016.

In the year 2019 the tournament came under the auspices of Eastern command and shifted towards the East of India and started with Kolkata being the home ground and the capital of eastern command.

However, what sets the Durand Cup tournament even more amazing is that the winners are 3 coveted trophies including the Durand Cup and the Shimla Trophy, which both are rotated within the teams, and the President’s Cup which the winning team takes home.