Kalina Rangers celebrate after qualifying for world finals.
Photo Credits: Neymar Jr's Five
PANAJI
Kalina Rangers, the qualifiers from the Goa leg, won the national finals of Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five.
The Rangers beat Sunny Boys, the winning team from the Pune leg, 2-0 in the final at Ella Ground, Carambolim. The team comprising Danish Khan, Melvin Barboza, Craig Dsouza, Johnson Dsilva, Scott Moraes, Dion Menezes and Clinton Dsouza will now represent India at the world finals of the global five-a-side tournament started by Brazilian footballer Neymar Jr, in Qatar.
This was the fifth edition of the tournament in India with more than 2700 teams participating in qualifiers across 18 cities which took place through August and September, with the winning team of each city qualifier competing at the national finals at Ella Ground on Friday, September 24.
Kalina Rangers from Goa, Sunny Boys from Pune, Black & White FC from Kochi and Zack FC from Delhi qualified for the semifinals. In the last-four, Kalina Rangers beat Black & White FC and Sunny Boys beat Zack FC Delhi (both 1-0). Kalina Rangers then beat Sunny Boys 2-0 in the final.
Neymar Jr’s Five is the Brazilian star’s signature five-a-side tournament bringing players aged 16 to 35 from all corners of the world together to celebrate their shared passion: football. It is a fast, technical and fun competition which sees two teams of five players, sans a goalkeeper, have 10 minutes to strut their stuff and win a chance to impress Neymar Jr. The twist in this thrilling affair is that for each goal scored by a team, a member of the opposition will have to leave the field. The team with the maximum players takes the spoils.
Results: semifinal 1 - Kalina Rangers (Goa) 1 Black & White FC (Kochi) 0, semifinal 2: Sunny Boys (Pune) 1 Zak FC (Delhi) 0; final - Kalina Rangers (Goa) 2 Sunny Boys (Pune) 0.
