Lessons Taught By Paro FC To Church Boys Bhutan’s Paro FC defeated Nepal’s league champions Church Boys United 2-1 at the Dasharath Rangshal on Tuesday to qualify for the group stage of the AFC Challenge League.
Paro, led by Japanese star Keisuke Honda, who has played in the World Cup three times, overturned a one-goal deficit and defeated the Church Boys on a slippery field due to rain.
Laken Limbu took the lead for Church Boys but Paro’s Kinga Wangchuk equalized. Similarly, William Opoku, who has played in A Division and NSL in Nepal, scored the winning goal in the second half for Paro.
In this game, mainly two topics got a lot of discussion. The condition of the first ground. The second is the appearance of Kesuke Honda.
A bet killed by Paro in the Hilamme Maidan
The ground was very wet due to two hours of continuous rain before the match. It was likely to be more difficult to play if it rained during the game. However, when the rain stopped an hour before the start of the match, the spectators who went to watch the match were also relieved. More than 9,000 spectators attended the match between Church Boys and Paro.
After almost 9 months, when international level football returned to Dashrath Rangshal, the spectators wanted to see the victory of the Nepalese team. However, that did not happen on the field. Bhutanese league champion Paro looked better than Nepalese league champion Church Boys.
In the first half, Paro missed the opportunity to take the lead when two of his shots hit the post. Locken scored in the 38th minute to give Church Boys the lead. However, Kinga equalized for Paro two minutes later.
In the second half, from the beginning, both teams were aggressive in adding goals. However, in the 66th minute, Opokulu gave Paro the lead by scoring a goal and winning by maintaining that lead.
Paro’s coach Pushpalal Sharma, who had commented about Dashrath Rangshal the previous day, did not comment much after winning the match. He said that it was difficult for both teams to play. “It made it difficult for both teams to play,” he answered accurately.
Similarly, William, who became the player of the match, also says that it was difficult because of the condition of the field. “We played according to the plan. I was looking for an opportunity to score and scored on the opportunity. I am very happy. The condition of the ground was not good,” he added.
Influence of Honda and foreign players
After the condition of the field, Honda became the next popular topic. The spectators in the stadium were excited to see the magic of the players who played in the World Cup. However, due to the condition of the ground, he could not perform as expected.
However, he did not disappoint the team as he led Paro wearing an armband. Under the leadership of Honda, Paro won for the first time on Nepali soil.
When AFC kept the number of foreign players unlimited for the Challenge League, Paro took advantage of it. He kept 11 foreign teams including Honda and played 9 players in the first choice. There were players from 5 countries including Bhutan. 4 players from Japan, 2 from Ghana, 2 from Serbia, and 2 from Montenegro played in the first choice.
Maharjan said that many spectators came to watch the match because of Honda’s name. However, even though it was a Bhutanese team, it was not seen as there were many foreigners on the field. It is the team of Bhutan. But it didn’t look like a Bhutanese team on the field. 9 foreigners played in the beginning. Bhutan is just a name. There were many foreign players in the team. It would be good if we had 2-3 foreigners too, he said.
Paro’s coach Pushpalal Sharma also said that foreign players have been contracted for this match and it will mean a lot if they succeed.
For this, we convinced the Bhutanese players so that they would not be affected,” Coach Sharma said, “with this victory, we will not have any problem running the club for two or three years. This victory is very important in Bhutanese football.
The team that wins the Challenge League playoffs will receive one hundred thousand dollars from the AFC. Also, now they will have the opportunity to play more games in the group stage.
