Churchill have last laugh

NEW DELHI: Churchill Brothers’ Nigerian goal machine Odafe Onyeka Okolie fired in the summit clash too as the Goan outfit edged out Mahindra United 1-0 to lift their maiden Durand Cup title here on Wednesday.

The title clash of Asia’s oldest football tournament, in its 120th edition, never really rose to great heights but Churchill Brothers clearly looked the better of the two teams on show at the floodlit Ambedkar Stadium.

Mahindra United had scored only one goal in three matches in the tournament and their poor form in that department showed badly in the finals as their forwards lacked the touch that could pose any threat to the Churchill defence.

Churchill skipper Odafe, on the other hand, had 10 goals in the tournament coming into the final and he lived upto his billing on the big day and was the clear difference between the two sides.

Odafe was later declared the winner of the ‘Golden Boot’ award.

However, there was nothing much for the crowd to cheer about the final as Odafe’s strike in the 11th minute of the match was the only goal they could savour of Churchill forwards Iyomi and Okolie made repeated forays and one of those attacks saw Odafe latch on to a pass from Bernardo Pires before taking aim at the goal from just inside the box that beat Mahindra custodian Sandeep Nandy all ends up.

Churchill players burst into celebration with Odafe and a few others breaking into the famous cradle dance in the sidelines, reminiscent of the Argentine celebration in the 1998 World Cup in the match against England.