29 July,2009 08:51 AM IST | | Clinton Vaz
With most division IV school teams being without a coach and not even bothering to practice, one-sided matches have reduced the tournament to a...
The fourth division matches in the Nike-MSSA inter-school football tournament may be short on quality with some teams playing for the very first time.
However, with many of the teams not having coaches and not even bothering to put in some practice before their matches, the tournament is reduced to a farce.
Without regular coaches, the schools are more often than not accompanied by their physical education teachers, who possess limited knowledge of the game.
Yesterday, St Elias (Khar Road) and Learner's Academy were perfect examples of this.
While Indian Airlines (Santacruz) drubbed St Eliasu00a0 9-0, St Theresa's (Bandra)u00a0 pumped 12 goals against a hapless Learner's Academy.
Later, players from both teams revealed that they do not bother to practice before matches. Both teams also didn't have coaches which explained the absence of any game plan.
Mid-way through the matches both sides looked to have given up, with their enthusiasm being dented as they kept letting in goal after goal.
St Elias custodian Sameer Garal admitted his team was unimpressive. "After we conceded the first goal we gave up all hope of a fight," he said.
Prachi Thanekar, the accompanying official with Learner's Academy refused to say much about the team's poor show.
"Five, six of our players are unwell. We don't even have a proper ground to practice on," said Thanekar, who is the school's Physical Education teacher.
