The 2-day Olive Futsal Cup got underway today, 4th September 2021, at the Olive Turf, Doragapathar, Dimapur. All together 54 teams have registered for participating in the tournament including 2 teams each from Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
President, DDADU, Tito Yepthomi who graced the occasion as the special guest, noted that there are numerous ways for developing sports sector in the State. He impressed upon the gathering that with combine efforts there's a huge potential in the field of sports. He further viewed that through sports people learn to respect one another which ultimately brings change in the society. The special guest offered to bear the registration expenses of those teams who came from outside Nagaland.
Mito Achumi, one of the main organiser of the Futsal Cup said that the objective of organising the Olive Futsal Cup was to promote a sense of Futsal mentalily amongst the Nagas as it is being recognised everywhere. He was optimistic that Futsal would get Nagas in the football map.
Football lovers watched the matched played between Nagaland Super 5 and Kakit team with excitement as it was a tough competition which ended with draw after the alloted time of 16 minutes. Luck favoured the Nagaland Super 5 team where they won the match after a penalty shoot-out. It may be mentioned that Nagaland Super 5 team has 2 national players in the person of James Kithan, who plays for the Churchill brothers Kolkota as goalkeeper. He is the 1st player from Nagaland to get the best goal keeper award and Man of the match award in the I League division and got featured in the NE team of the week. Kivi Zhimomi is also another promising player who plays for N E. United.
In the match between AZTEC and Pendora, the former won the match by scoring 2 goals to 1. The match played between Thahekhu FC and United brothers Ghaspani was won by the Thahekhu team. More teams were getting ready to play till the time of filing this report.
Prize money to the tune of one lakh would be given to the Champion, 1st runner up and the semi- finalist and there will also be trophy individual awards.
(DPRO Dimapur)
