Arunava about Football A look at football & the world through my eyes!
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The fifth season of the Roots Football League for junior footballers came to a close this weekend with the seventh and final round of league matches for the eight teams in Under-13 being played, while the U-11, U-9 and U-7 categories played the second leg of their play-off matches to decide champions of their league based on the aggregate score over the two legs. The U-11, U-9 & U-7 which had six teams each played for the final positions in the two-legged playoff match, based on their positions after the end of the league round matches.
The Roots Football league formulated five years back to spread the football movement among junior footballers and parents and to provide a competitive yet fun environment for kids to play the game in an organised manner had 208 boys and girls participating in the fifth season. The unique aspect of the league is that all the participants register individually and are divided into teams based on age and skill. The league draws participation from children across the cross section of Bangalore right from footballing pockets like Murphy town, Ashok Nagar, to children from over 70 – NGO, CBSE, ICSE and international schools participating and competing together in the same team guided by parent volunteer coaches. The fifth edition had 26 teams in four age categories and witnessed a phenomenal 392 goals from the 91 matches played on weekends across all the four age categories over the 2 month long season.
The Under-13 category the Iris Sharks completed a 6-3 win over Candy Bazaar Stallions and continued their domination at the top, staying undefeated over seven rounds, with player of tournament in Under 13 Rayaan Shakeer completing another hat-trick. BLK Lions showed great resilience to come from behind and win 4-3 against the Roots Football Foundation Hawks, while JobsForHer Rhinos had a close win over Orchestrate Eagles; leaving Lions, Hawks & Rhinos at the same points at the end of the last round and Hawks, Rhinos and Lions finishing second, third and fourth on goal difference.
In the Under-11 category, in the second leg of the play off’s the RDI Bisons had a close 2-1 win over Unitus Capital Cheetahs to win the championship on aggregate scores after being tied at 2-2 at the end of the first leg.
In the Under-9 category Unitus Capital Cheetahs made a comeback in the second leg to win 2-1 over RDI Bisons and draw level on aggregate score after their first leg defeat of 2-3 and taking the match to extra time, and Rahul Karthik scoring a superb extra time goal for the Cheetahs to win the championship.
In the Under-7 age category, Unitus Capital Cheetahs played superbly in the second leg to win 3-0 over BLK Lions and overturning their 1-2 loss to the Lions in the first leg.
