Western Railway lifted the Mumbai District Football Association-organised Independence Cup by beating Indian Navy 5-4 via tie-breaker after the keenly contested final remained goalless at the end of regulation time at St Xavier’s Ground in Parel on Saturday
Western Railway lifted the Mumbai District Football Association-organised Independence Cup by beating Indian Navy 5-4 via tie-breaker after the keenly contested final remained goalless at the end of regulation time at St Xavier’s Ground in Parel on Saturday. WR goalkeeper Jagroop Singh was instrumental in his team lifting the prestigious title for the third time.
ADVERTISEMENT
Western Railway goalkeeper Jagroop Singh saves a goal during the Independence Cup final against Indian Army at St Xavier’s ground at Parel on Saturday. Pic/Bipin Kokate
Jagroop, time and again, thwarted the Indian Navy forwards during the match and then in the tie-breaker, denied Navy’s Biplab Dhar from the spot to give the Railway side top honours.
In the tie-breaker, Ravikant Naidu, Somi PT, Linekar Machado, Somnath Mondal and Anil Pawar scored for WR, while only Sunil Naik, Riyad B, V Lalchhuanmania and PS Sumesh managed to find the back of the net
for Navy. Twenty-four-year-old Jagroop Singh hails from Gurdaspur in Punjab, but has made Mumbai his home thanks to his goalkeeping prowess.
Jagroop has represented the India U-19 team in 2007 and 2008 and followed it up with stints in the U-21 team in 2009-10, and then in the senior side in 2012. Last year, he was part of the inaugural franchise-based Indian Super League (ISL) as Delhi Dynamos’ reserve custodian.
Jagroop cherished his ISL experience. “The ISL was a whole new experience. I got the opportunity to meet so many foreign players and play with them. I learnt new tactics and that helped me improve over all,” said Jagroop, a member of the silver medal-winning Punjab team at this year’s National Games and Santosh Trophy.