Pune FC Under-19s head South for the first time this season to participate in the Kalliyath TMT Mammi Haji Memorial All India Invitation Football Tournament in Tirur, Kerala.
For the Pune FC Under-19 team, the tournament is the fifth open tournament at the all-India level in the 2014-15 season having earlier participated in the Gorkha Gold Cup in Darjeeling, Bordoloi Trophy in Guwahati, DSK Cup in Pune and Kalinga Cup in Cuttack.
Organised by the Sports Academy Tirur in association with Malappuram District Football Association, the 12-team tournament which kicked off on March 24th spans over two weeks with the big final scheduled on April 7th. All the games will be played Rajiv Gandhi Municipal Stadium in Tirur under floodlights.
Speaking ahead of the team’s departure, Coach Naushad Moosa said, “The competition will provide a good experience to the players as they will play higher intensity matches before the final phase of the U19 I-League. All the players are geared up and really excited ahead of the tournament.”
Having been seeded into Group II, Pune FC will face Army Red Bangalore (March 30) in the opener before taking on State Bank of Travancore (SBT) (April 2) in the second match. The winner of the three-team group will qualify for the semifinals.
The 18-member squad reached Tirur late on Saturday, 28th March.
Goalkeepers: Sukhadev Patil, Debopriya Das
Defenders: Asheer Akhtar, Dimple Bhagat, Manoranjan Singh, Myron Mendes, Tarif Akhand
Midfielders: Prakash Sarkar, Pradeesh Celement, Ashique Kuruniyan, Sanchayan Samadder, Altamash Sayed, Chesterpaul Lyngdoh, Sannik Murmu, Akshay Pashilkar,
Strikers: Arif Shaikh, Farukh Choudhary, Md. Asif
Staff: Naushad Moosa (Coach), Mohan Dass (Manager), Lino Sequeira (Physiotherapist)
