Football

Fixtures for football:

ITBHU v/s IERT, Allahabad
MNIT, Allahabad v/s MERI
AVB IITM Gwalior v/s IERT, Allahabad
IIT Ghaziabad v/s UIT RGPV
KIT, Kanpur v/s UGI, Allahabad
NIT, Surat v/s KNIT, Sultanpur

RESULTS: FOOTBALL

RESULTS: FOOTBALL 27Feb

Baichung Bhutia..... Torch Bearer of Indian Football

Baichung Bhuita, name that symbolizes the Indian Football Team for most of us. The personality who has been in the news very frequently and is seen as the only ray of hope of the National Football team.

Bhutia(born on 15 December,1976 in Sikkim ) comes from a Buddhist background, and is by conviction an atheist. Former India goalkeeper Bhaskar Ganguly spotted his talent and hence gifted us with a such a stellar performer.

In 1993, at the age of sixteen, he joined the professional East Bengal Club in Calcutta. In 1995, he moved to JCT Mills, Phagwara, which went on to win the India National Football League that year. He was named "1996 Indian Player of the Year" and has won numerous other awards since then.
In 1997 he returned to East Bengal, and became team captain in the 1998-99 season. Baichung Bhutia has the unique distinction of scoring the only hatrick in the Derby Clashes between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, when he registered the same in East Bengal's 4-1 triumph in 1997 Federation Cup Semi Final. In 1999 he travelled overseas to play for Bury F.C. after unsuccessful trials with both Fulham F.C. and Aston Villa F.C. with the move improving his conditioning and strategy. In 2002 he returned to India and played for the Mohun Bagan AC for a year before returning again to the East Bengal Club, helping them to win the Asean Cup (Association of South East Asian Nations) Club Championship. He signed up to play for Perak, the Malaysian championship club, from August to October 2003 and returning to East Bengal for the regular season. He continued to play for East Bengal till the end of 2005-2006 season. In 2006, he joined Mohun Bagan AC and has remained with them since then. He has recently renewed his contract for a further two years from 2008 to 2010 with the Mohun Bagan.

The Sikkimese government has built a stadium, the Baichung Stadium in Namchi, the district headquarters, in honor of Baichung. He is one of the most popular figures in the state and is considered as a role model to many Sikkimese as well to people from other states of India.

In 2008, Bhutia was solicited to run with the Olympic torch in India, but he refused to carry the torch to show support for the Tibetan independence movement. "I sympathise with the Tibetan cause. I'm against violence but I thought I should stand by the Tibetan people in their fight," Bhutia said. He was the first sportsman to refuse carrying the Olympic torch.

But he is coming this year to hold SPARDHA TORCH. So ITians get ready to see the most admired Indian Footballer at SPARDHA 09.Don't miss the chance to get inspired from his passion for sports.

Million Dollar Baby:2

Vivek,Football

I hail from Sarnath. I used to play Hockey till 10^th standard, but was introduced to the football world during my pre IIT-JEE days in Kota.

My mentor was a senior from Delhi who was a very good footballer himself. I used to get together with him and his friends and play football during the wee hours of the day, usually between 1 pm to 3 pm.

In IT-BHU, I’ve played in the Adel Memorial Inter Hostel Football Tournament in which I received the best 1^st year footballer title. I also represented IT in IIT Kanpur’s Udghosh, in which I played as a midfielder in both football and hockey.

I’m a big fan of Steven Gerrard, mainly because of his dedication to the team and I sincerely try to imbibe this in my traits.

My role models in IT are Baljit Bhaiya, Sandeep Bhaiya and Dharmendra Bhaiya whose timely guidance and inspirational talks will go a long way in improving my game. I am a little ambitious and my wildest dream would be to play next to Rooney.

LEGENDS:2

Siddharth Khandelwal

Striker, Football.

Ajmer, Rajasthan.

Q: Could you tell us your achievements in and before you joined IT?

R: In school I was decorated as the Best District Player in Ajmer. I was also selected to play for the Nationals twice. After coming to IT, my hostel team in IT has won the Adel Memorial Cup three times in a row. More importantly we have clinched Silver at Spardha ’06 and Gold at Spardha ’07.

Q: What have you gained from playing football for IT?

R: Temperament. But I must add that I play football purely out of passion. I simply love playing the game.

Q: Do you intend to continue playing in the future?

R: Unlikely. I have decided to pursue my MS from the United States. It remains to be seen if I can give football the time and energy it deserves.

Q: Who in your opinion will take your place in the IT team once you graduate?

R: Deepak Singh, from 4^th year MNC. He’s an excellent player with great finishing abilities

.

Q: Tell us something interesting about yourself that very few people know.

R: I wish you had given me this questionnaire earlier so I could think about my replies beforehand. Jokes apart, many people don’t know that my physique till class 5^th was such that I couldn’t play football

.

Q: What are your expectations from Spardha ’09?

R: Since we couldn’t get gold last year, I’d like to remedy that by grabbing 1^st place this year.

Q: What is your most memorable moment in your career at IT?

R: The semi-finals at Udghosh ’06. We lost, but we played a fantastic match. That match, I will never forget.

Q: Anything you’d like to say to the IT Junta?

R: Yeah, I’d like you to come and watch all or matches, we need your support. Also I’d like to tell my juniors to practice hard and show more commitment. Playing for IT is a privilege you shouldn’t take lightly.

By:Samanyu

Captain's Pick:Football

This section salutes the efforts of those ITians who were champs in their arena.The present captain shall choose his Eleven and pay tribute to our distinguished alumni.
We begin with Football.
Captain:Baljit Vikas

Big Money, Better Football?

The venue is the City of Manchester stadium. A large Eastlands crowd, which seemed fairly subdued till now, suddenly seems to have come alive. It whistles and jeers in unison as a Chelsea player shoves down one of the Manchester City players just outside the box. It waits in anticipation as the Man City players decide who is to take the free-kick. Some of the fans are yelling their choices. And even while they are at it, Robson de Souza, Man City’s newest signing, steps forward and takes it. The ball, struck quite cleanly, takes a deflection and flies into the net. The crowd goes mad with frenzy: they have just witnessed Britain’s costliest player Robinho score his first goal in a Man City shirt. Will he be the change that the fans have waited for so many years? Will he lead them on to the premiership title? The stadium is abuzz with excited, hopeful, and now maybe with the benefit of hindsight, a tad immature predictions of Man City’s future reign at the English Premier League. But even as the magic of the moment is being soaked in, and the $60 million dollar messiah being hailed, Chelsea with one of their characteristic breathtaking counter-attacks, score on the break. And from then on it’s the same old story: mediocre football by the home side, which goes on to lose 1-3.

While their can be no doubts that the coming of Robinho to Citeh has given manager Mark Hughes greater options, it can also not be argued that, so far, the player of the season for them has been Stephen Ireland, a 22 year old Irish international, who joined the club for a pittance at the age of 15 and has played there ever since. Having learnt his trade at the Eastlands, Ireland is a classic case of an academy player proving more effective than a big-budget signing. But such cultivation of players needs time and patience. This is something that the Abu Dhabi royal family, the new “owners” (splashing $360 millions of petro-dollars might let you procure the stadium and the players, but it doesn’t give you possession of the club’s culture: it will forever remain the rightful property of the fans) of Manchester City may not necessarily have. They are bound to look for results .Hence the big-budget signings are sure to continue.

But this takes us back to our original question: does spending big bucks translate into success on the pitch? Take Chelsea, for e.g. . . Mr. Abramovich’s millions of dollars, for all the fabulous players that it has brought to the club, big time success still eludes them. Not just that! Their talismanic player, amongst the glitterati of costly stars, has been an academy player, Frank Lampard. Very similar is the case of the captain courageous of Liverpool, Steven Gerrard. In fact, if you look carefully, the Premier League is littered with such examples of home-grown players outshining the high profile signings. Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, John Terry… to name a few.

But at the same time , some clubs with fabulous youth systems in place , say West Ham United, haven’t done that well and hence find it difficult to retain their talent. They end up being surrogate mothers for the bigger clubs. Are the big bucks to be blamed for it? Would the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole, still have played for the Hammers if they would have tasted success there? Or would they still have preferred big money? It’s alright for a 68 year old Pele to say that players these days play only for the money, but what would he have done if he were to ply his trade now?

As the premiership continues to evolve, such questions would be asked more and more often. Also what is quite clear that the huge marketability is bound to have an effect on the football? The free flowing, open attacking games will be substituted by closed, monotonous affairs (last season, the average number of goals per match was 3; this season, up till now, it’s been 2.5) between big spending teams only looking for results.

So like it or not, our beautiful game has been sullied by some cheap petro-dollars, and the stain is here to stay.

Sudipta Mukherjee

Football:Baljit Vikas

Baljit Vikas, a fourth year student of mathematics and computing, is all set to lead his team to glory in the biggest event of IT BHU. He started his football carrier in IT BHU as a mid fielder in his freshman year and has since then toned his skills to excellence.

He is a true football enthusiast and has not missed any chance to play football in IT or outside.

The captain is banking his star players Sidharth Khandelwal, Animesh Gautam, Vihan Gupta, Deepak Singh, Diwankar Bari, Pramil Jain, Rajat, Dharmindra, Jishnu, C.B. Singh (Bullu) to deliver.

The team is all focus as they practice rigorously in the pale winter sun as they hope to tie all loose ends before the D-day.
The spirits in the dressing room are soaring as IT’s favourite team return to their favourite hunting grounds.

Contact No:9935068863