Girls just wanna have football fun

The Mumbai sub-junior team came back on Thursday with a trophy after a dominating show. The coach proposes some reforms to make these contests more competitive.

The Mumbai side put up a dominant display against neighbors Pune which reflected in the 4-0 scoreline at full time in the Maharashtra State Inter-District Sub-Junior Girls’ Football Championships 2017-18 in Jalgaon. The city girls cruised through the whole tournament without conceding a single goal.

Coach Rohit D’Souza says he knew it from the very first day that his team would go and win. He demands a few reforms to relax the rules in order to make such tournaments somewhat competitive. “Many teams from other cities do not even have 11 players to enter the tournament,” he supports his argument.

“I spoke to a few other coaches as well. What the association could do is maybe reduce the number of players so the matches are at least a little more competitive,” says D’Costa who is also the founder of the club ‘Mumbai Strikers’ that plays in the Elite Division of the MDFA league.

“The grassroots programme of the MDFA is good but there is still need to escalate the number games that the teams play. A club culture in women’s football is the need of the hour,” he recommends to the association.

Mumbai is fortunate to have inter-school tournaments while other cities in Maharashtra are still struggling with the primitive thought of not letting girls pursue the sport. “Girls from other teams told me that they start practising four days before the tournament. Some of the teams make their starting eleven out of athletes from other sports, which is why I suggest having like a 5-a side or a 7-a side competition,” he says.

In the thumping victory, striker Mehak Lobo grabbed a hattrick in the 61 minute of the game. The enterprising Mehak showed good finishing touches scored the first goal in the 23rd minute and added the second in the 31st minute before teammate Riya D’Souza chipped in with the third in the 47th minute.