UST Global crowned football champions of Technopark for the 3rd successive year

TechnoparkToday.com(Dec,2013) : UST Global has been crowned the football champions of  Technopark for the 3rd successive year. UST Global defeated Infosys in the finals of GOAL 2013 – Technopark’s premier football tournament, to complete a hat trick of victories.

The finals was a tense & thrilling encounter. The defending champions saw themselves go 2 goals behind after the first 15 minutes. The first goal for Infosys was scored by Jayaram, who unmarked at the far post, ran on to convert a loose ball inside the box. Though UST tried to retaliate, it was once again Infosys who sprang a surprise by scoring another goal. The Infosys captain, Subin, made a terrific run into the penalty box and unleashed a shot which eluded the UST goalkeeper and went in, much to the joy of the Infosys contingent. UST then slowly came back into the game and urged on by their supporters, scored the first goal in the closing minutes of the first half. A well placed pass from Binu was converted brilliantly by Lal, who turned and took the shot first time. UST then breathed a sigh of relief as two successive free kicks – the first one hitting the post and the second one saved acrobatically by Sanoop, almost restored Infy’s lead.

There was no let up in action in the second half. Both teams went close to scoring, but the goalkeepers stood firm. Finally the equalizer arrived. A high ball played into the area was almost collected by the Infy goalkeeper, but Binu, out of nowhere ran onto the end of the ball and diverted it onto goal. UST then almost won the match through Anoop, whose shot from the right corner ricocheted off the post.

The extra time also saw some good moves from both the teams, but the deciding goal did not come and so it was onto penalties. All 4 UST players who took the penalties converted their kicks, while 2 of the Infosys players could not convert their kicks, one of them going out & the second one being saved by Sanoop. The final score line read UST Global 2 (4) – Infosys 2 (2)

The closing ceremony was presided over by A M Sreedharan, former coach of the Indian national team and the current coach of the Kerala football team. Hema Menon, UST Center Head – Trivandrum and Subhash Parameswaran, Head of IS, UST Global were also present for the function. Coach Sreedharan appreciated the spirit of oneness that was shown by the players and hailed GOAL as the “techie” world cup! He encouraged the crowd to keep up the passion for the game and handed over the trophies to the winners.

The 3rd place was won by Allianz, who defeated Nest 1-0. Pradeep from Allianz won the top scorer award for scoring 5 goals in the tournament. Deepak from Allianz came second with 4 goals. Binu from UST Global won the player of the tournament award for his stellar contribution throughout the event.

GOAL is Technopark’s annual football tournament organized by UST Global. This was the sixth edition of the tournament.