The Budweiser Cup pledges to provide amateur football players an once-in-a-lifetime chance to live their dream that they have been fostering ever since they got the sense of football for the first time. And for the 72 players who participated in the competition in Bangalore on Saturday, they certainly were doing that: living their dreams.
The matches commenced at half past eight in the morning with all the twelve teams participating in the competition grooving to wrestle with fate and charge forward like the Light Brigade.
Quite a number of spectators had swarmed to the famous RSI Grounds at MG Road right from the start and as the day progressed, several others joined in the fun. The twelve participating teams had been divided into four groups: A, B, C and D. There were three teams each in the first three groups (A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, B3, C1, C2, C3) and two in group D (D1, D2).
Although this is supposed to be an amateur football competition, there was nothing like Sunday League attitude anywhere. There were tackles flying all around, some mesmerizing tricks were conjured up in the twinkle of the eye, some sharp words were exchanged but of course there were no fights.
The spectators were in mood for party. Some had brought drinks and snacks to fill themselves while they watched the matches and the noise was electrifying. Some of the players had brought their family members too and whenever those players laid some touches on the ball, they would go bonkers.
The matches were played in a league format and the two best teams from each group threaded themselves into the second round. The second round will be a knockout competition involving eight teams and seven more matches, including the semi-finals and the finals.
These matches will be played out tomorrow starting from eight in the morning to decide which team wins the regional finals and gallops to the national finals to be played in Mumbai later this month.
Source: Goal.com
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