Blue Colts To Face Tata FA, SESA FA And RFYC In Inaugural Edition Of Tournament To Be Held In Goa

Goa: Bengaluru FC’s U18s will kick off their campaign in the Vedanta Youth Cup 2019 with a clash against Mumbai-based Reliance Foundation Young Champs (RFYC) at the SESA Football Ground in Sirsaim, Goa, on Monday. Coached by Naushad Moosa, the Blue Colts will participate in the inaugural edition of the competition, to be hosted at the SESA Football Academy facilities.

The tournament, also endorsed by the Goa Football Association and organized by Vedanta Sesa Goa Iron Ore, brings together India’s top four residential football academies in hosts SESA Football Academy and Jamshedpur-based TATA Atletico Football Academy apart from RFYC and Bengaluru FC.

Speaking on the eve of their opener, BFC Head of Youth Development, Naushad Moosa said, “This tournament provides very good exposure for our team and will help us evaluate our players and figure out how much they understand our philosophy and style of play. We will be getting some quality matches and are eagerly looking forward to those. We have been playing friendly games, but this tournament will add the right amount of competitiveness and help us gauge ourselves.”

With the AIFF Youth League starting later in the season, Moosa believes competitions like these are crucial for the development of players who need to play more competitive matches. “We hope that more teams try and play in such competitions, as we need more and more games at this level. It’s vital for these youngsters to get a good number of competitive games under their belt at this age because that’s how we will be able to produce a good level of talent pool all over our country,” he added.

The format of the competition sees all four teams face off against each other once, before the play-offs, which means every team will get four competitive games. The Blue Colts, who play their opener on September 23, will go on to face SESA Academy (Sep 25) and Tata FA (Sep 27) through the week before the 1st/2nd and 3rd/4th place play-off on Sunday, September 29.

The 17-man squad named by Naushad Moosa is as follows

Goalkeepers: Dipesh Chauhan, Raj Biswa

Defenders: Rajanbir Singh, Likmabam Rakesh, FC Lalhmunmawia, Laishain Johnson Singh, Jagdeep Singh

Midfielders: Fredy Chawngthansanga, Bekey Oram, Emanuel Lalchhanchhuaha, Damaitphang Lyngdoh, Robin Yadav

Forwards: Ronik Singh, Ngangom Gunendro, Akashdeep Singh, Monirul Molla, Lalthangliana

Staff: Naushad Moosa (Coach), Karthik Hariharan (Analyst), Rahul CR (Physiotherapist)

Fixtures

Sep 23 – Bengaluru FC vs Reliance Foundation Young Champs – 9.00 AM

Sep 25 – Bengaluru FC vs Sesa FA – 9.00 AM

Sep 27 – Bengaluru FC vs Tata FA – 9.00 AM

Sep 29 – Play-offs

Venue: SESA FA Ground, Sirsaim