History beckons Three Star Clubs

The Martyrs’ Memorial A Division League champions Laxmi BankThree Star Club will be representing Nepal for the second time at the President’s Cup 2013. One of the successful football clubs of Nepal, Three Star returned to the Cup after eight year’s gap.

The President’s Cup has been organized by Asian Football Association from 2005 targeting the clubs of third grade footballing nations of Asia. Being graded at the 3^rd level by AFC, Nepal’s league winners also get the opportunities to showcase their talent in the Cup.

One of the successful top-tier clubs of Nepal, Three Stars had made it to the semifinals in the first edition of the Cup held in Kathmandu, Nepal. Hence, the seven time A division League Champions Three Star will be having second chance to show their worth in the Cup, after they booked the place in the final round being the Group A winner of the 9^th edition’s qualifiers held in Dasarath Stadium from May 7-May 11.

The A division outfit from Lalitpur district, is one of two clubs that are successful at the President’s Cup. Nepal Police Club that took part in the Cup for the five times had entered semifinal twice and final once. The other team that got the opportunity to represent Nepal in the Cup, Manang Marsyangdi Club and New Road Team could not fare well. They both were ousted from the group stage.

Three Star, taking home advantage, reached to the semifinal in the first edition but were unlucky to lose the match by 4-3 score in tiebreaker against Dordoi Dynamo of Kyrgyzstan. The second edition was forgettable for Nepal as then first division champions Manang Marsyangdi Club was out from the group stage.

The performance of Police club in the third edition held in Lahore, Pakistan in 2007 has not been repeated till now. Police, in their first participation, was successful to represent Nepal in the final of the event. But the title dream was crashed after Police was defeated by Kyrgyzstan power house Dordoi by 2-1. In 2008, Police could only make to the semifinal and returned home after faltering once again to host Dordoi by 3-1.

Police, then, represented Nepal in the President’s Cup qualifiers of 2009, 2011 and 2012. But owing to their poor performance, Police failed to give the impression of being the 2007finalist crashing out from the qualifying round. The qualifiers was introduced by AFC from the 2008 edition.  New Road Team was provided with the chance to take part in the qualifiers of the 2010 edition, but it too failed to make into the final round.

Finally, Three Star ended Nepali league champions’ four years wait to play in the finals at the 9^th edition. Three Star also became the first Nepali team to qualify to the finals being the group winners.  

Along with Three Star, Taiwan Power Company of Chinese Taipei, Erchim Football Club of Mongolia and Abahani Limited of Bangladesh were in fray for the place in the finals from Group A. But it was Group A host Three Star and Erchim that moved forward to the finals, courtesy to each other.

The contention for the September’s finals went till the last round of Group A with host having four points, Taiwan and Abahani collecting two points and Erchim with one points from their two round matches.

Three Star at least needed a draw against their third round rival Taiwan to advance after collecting three points from 2-1 victory over Mongolian league champions and sharing one point with Bangladesh champions Abahani with 1-1 tie from the first round.

But last edition’s Group A topper Taiwan and Abahani needed victory in their last round in order to advance but to their dismay both team failed to register win. The 1-0 win of Erchim over Abahani, guaranteed the finals’ ticket to host before playing their third round match against Taiwan.

And Erchim also toasted their historic win in the tournament by joining the hosts in the final after Three Star frustrated the defending champions to 2-2 draw. The draw gave the Three Stars Club the top position with five points in their tally, followed by Erchim Club with four points at the second positions. After sharing points in all its three matches, holders Taiwan was crashed out from the tournament with three points for third position while Abahani occupied the bottom place with two points from two draw and one loss.

Three Stars and Erchim will be joining with Balkan FC of Turkmenistan, Alquds Hilal Club of Palestine, Dordoi Dynamo and KRL Football Club of Pakistan in the final round where the six teams will be divided into two groups and one best team from each group after round robin league will book their place for the title clash.

After being qualified, Coach Pradip Humangain believes that Three Star has the quality of lifting the President’s Cup. “Provided the final round held in Nepal, we can have the advantage of winning the title.”

With five new promising players and two foreign recruits, Three Star must improve their defense line up in order to strengthen their team. Three Star is now three win away from the title. It needs two wins in the next round to make the final trip.

Hence, Three Star should be working hard for the September finals as they have the golden opportunity to prove their excellence in bringing the cup home for the first time.    

Points Table

Team                           Pld       W        D         L          GF       GA       GD       Pts
Three Star Club            3          1          2          0          5          3          +2        5

Erchim FC                   3          1          1          1          1          2          −1        4

Taiwan Power               3          0          3          0          3          3          0          3

Abahani Limited           3          0          2          1          2          3          −1        2

Results

Three Star Club 1-1 Abahani Limited (Bangladesh)

Jagjeet Shrestha (free kick)-

Three Star Club 2-0 Erchim FC (Mongolia)

Dodoz, Femi

Three Star Club 2-2 Taiwan Power (Chinese Taipei)

Zikahi Dodoz (10’), Prakash Budhathoki (15’)-Kou Yin Hung (20’), Hung Kai Chin (45+2’)