Indian Football team won the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship for the sixth time Sunday, defeating first time entrant in the final of SAFF Cup Afghanistan by 4-0. India's star performer, Man of the Match and Player of the Tournament Sunil Chhetri, Clifford Miranda, Jeje Lalpekhlua, and substitute Chongtham Sushil Singh scored a goal each for India.
Indian players were off coloured in the first half and were unable to compete with the physique, skills and speed of Afghanistan players who dominated and kept the ball on Indian side most of the time.
The first half ended with no goals despite several moves.
In the second half, the Indian came back in their colors and continued to attack to their rival. But could not convert the opportunities in the goal.
In the 63rd minute, Afghan player Faisal Safa interrupted Jeje inside the box, and Indian origin Singaporean referee Sukhbir Singh awarded India a penalty kick. This infuriated the Afghanistan captain and goalkeeper Hameedullah Yousufzari who pushed the referee back and referee awarded him 'Red Card'.
This turned the game as Afghanistan had to play only 10 players and India began to kick the goal one by one.
First, Sunil Chhetri converted the awarded penalty into goal and lead India by 1-0. After that the enthusiastic Indian continued to dominate demoralised Afghanistan players and struck three goals in 77th minute, 79th and 94th minutes by Clifford Miranda, Jeje Lalpekhlua and Sushil Singh respectively.
Sushil Singh was substitute for Sunil Chhetri, who was injured after 80 th minutes of game.
This was the first title for Indian Captain Climax Lawrence but for the Indian coach Savio Medeira it was double delight as he achieved a rare distinction of winning SAFF Championship both as a player in 1997 and a coach in 2011 as he said in the press conference after the match, "I am very happy to have won the tournament both as a player and a coach."
Medeira denied the rival coach Yousef Kargar's allegation of Indian origin referee to favour India."I do not think the referee was partial. He also spoke to the linesman who had a better view of the incident," said Indian Coach.
On responding over 'Red Card' incident, Medeira said that it was fair as the punishment of pushing referee was Red card award.
But Afghan Coach's view was different over the match. According to Kargar, the referee should show the 'Yellow Card' instead.
"It was too harsh to punish Hameedullah. This demoralized the players and if 'Red Card' was not showed, the result would be different", said Kargar.
"I will go for official complaint to Singaporean referee," he added.
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