India finish third at Nations Cup

Coach Bob Houghton tasted success on his first assignment as the Indian football team beat China U-20 2-1 to clinch third place in the Vancouver Whitecaps Nations Cup.

NP Pradeep and Manjit Singh were on target for the Indians while Tang Jiashu pulled one back for the Chinese outfit.

The result should give some confidence to the Indian think-tank and players in the lead up to the Doha Asian Games in December as China is considered to be one of the fancied teams in the competition.

Later in the title clash of last evening, Michael Chopra missed from the spot as Vancouver Whitecaps FC took the Nations Cup defeating Cardiff City FC, Wales, in a penalty shootout after both teams were locked goalless after 120 minutes.

India started brightly in the third place playoff and had a lot of the ball in the initial stages but could not create any chances.

Gradually, the Chinese team came into the match and both sides start attacking the rival goal.

NP Pradeep broke the deadlock just before the half-hour mark when he headed in a Renedy Singh corner.

But India went down to 10 men five minutes before halftime when forward Sushil Kumar Singh was sent off after he missed an overhed kick and hit Chinese defender Zhou Yun on the head with his left foot.

The numerical advantage encouraged the Chinese to mount more raids into the Indian territory.

Houghton makes changes to deal with the problem and brings in skipper S Venkatesh and Steven Dias for Bibiano Fernandes and Renedy Singh, who led the team in the first 45 minutes.

In the 65th minute, Micky Fernandes came in for Samir Naik and a minute later, India got the crucial second goal in a counter-attack.

Stevn Dias' shot was blocked in front of the Chinese goal but Manjit was on hand to tap the ball in and double India's lead.

The Chinese pulled one back when Tang Jiashu scored from a corner in the 76th minute.

With a quarter of an hour left to play, they now threw everything at the Indians in search of an equaliser but Houghton's men defended stoutly to clinch third place.

In the title match, Tony Donatelli, Steve Kindell and Dave Morris were on target for Vancouver Whitecaps FC while Kevin McNaughton was the only one successful for Cardiff.

The attempts by Chopra and David Thompson were saved by custodian Tony Caig while Darren Purse hit the post.