GROUP –A
Dubbed the Group of Death, some big players are going home early from this group. Dimapur has already qualified from this group and there is only one spot left to be taken. Chumou, Phek and Wokha are vying for that one spot. Who is it going to be? Can Chumou with all the seasoned players in the team claim it or is it going to be the defending champs Phek? Wait a minute; it could possibly go to the dark horse Wokha.
Dimapur has already qualified for the next round and is comfortably sitting at the top of the table after securing a perfect 2 wins out of 2 games. Their next match is against neighbors Chumou on Saturday. They will want to keep their winning streak unbroken as well as proceed to the next round as Group winners.
Wokha is in second place with 3 points from 2 games. Their next match is against defending champs Phek. They will qualify for the next round if they could salvage a point from their encounter with Phek. A win would be a bonus. A win also gives them the chance to top the table should Dimapur lose against Chumou.
Chumoukedima, with 1 point from 2 games faces Dimapur on Saturday. It is a must win for them. A draw is not going to do them any good. Chumou-Dimapur match is going to be a cracker of a match, all ye football fans!
Phek. Well, well, well. Who would have thought that Phek will be languishing at the bottom of the table after 2 games but look where we are! They must now go out all guns blazing against Wokha on Saturday and rack up all 3 points from the game or they go home early. Their title defense campaign is turning out to be a nightmare but anything can happen here. A win against Wokha and they could possibly go all the way to successfully retain the title but a draw would be such a shame. A draw would mean a defending champion being eliminated in the Group stages. Interesting, eh!?
GROUP-B
The group with 3 eastern districts and a debutant. Kiphire, the first team to be eliminated in the tournament can still play for pride and topple the table in the process. Mon is sitting at the top of the table with 4 points from 2 games. Tuensang also has 4 points from 2 games but is in second place as of now owing to inferior goal difference. Niuland, with a win and a loss in their 2 group games is in the third place with 3 points, refusing to bow out just yet.
Mon faces Kiphire on Saturday. Kiphire is already eliminated but they can possibly show Mon the exit door on their way out. A draw would be enough for Mon to book their berth in the next round but (and that’s a BIG but) if Kiphire were to deliver an upset win and the other match in the group between Tuensang and Niuland were to end in a draw, Mon could land in trouble.
Tuensang only need a point from their last game in the group stages which is against Niuland to proceed to the next round. However, Niuland definitely has other ideas because a draw might not be good enough for them to go through to the next round. This match promises to be a classic game of football.
Niuland, playing their first inter district tournament, will definitely want to prove their mettle. If they win against Tuensang, they go through. If they draw with Tuensang, their fate would depend on the outcome of the Mon-Kiphire match.
Kiphire, the first team to be confirmed eliminated (until they were joined by poor hosts Mokokchung and neighbours Zunheboto) will play their last match of the current edition against Mon on Saturday. And boy, would they not want to go out with a statement?! The boys from the easternmost district just might take Mon out of the tournament on their long way home. Watch out!
GROUP-C
With 2 debutants in the group, this pool is still wide open with no clear winners even after the first 2 legs of the round robin. Peren is placed at the top of the table but that is a shaky table. Not the kind of feeling you generally get when you are at the top. You see, the team at the top could be the one going home early while the one languishing at the bottom could proceed to the next round after the last leg. This group is humoring us all. All of the 4 teams in this group still have the mathematical probability to qualify for the next round.
Peren, the uncomfortable group leaders, will face Longleng on Monday. A draw would suffice for Peren but win they must if they want to proceed as the group winners.
Shamator, with 2 points on the table from as many games, will face off against bottom table placed Noklak. A draw for Shamator might just be enough for them to scrape through to the next round BUT ONLY IF Longleng lose their match against Peren. In other words, it’s as good as a must-win match for Shamator.
Longleng will want to win the match against Peren. If Longleng win the match against Peren, and Shamator lose or draw in their game against Noklak, then Peren will go to the next round despite the loss.
Noklak, if they win their last game against fellow debutants, will have earned 4 points – enough to qualify for the next round but would depend on the outcome of the match between Peren and Longleng. Group-C is like trigonometry to the average Naga student.
GROUP-D
This group here is like the slaughterhouse. No mercy; just blunt and straightforward results. After 2 games each, 2 teams have been eliminated and the other 2 teams have qualified. Just like that. No room for any late drama in the third leg. Tseminyu and Kohima will battle it out to take top honours while hosts Mokokchung and neighbors Zunheboto will play a dead rubber match.
Tseminyu, currently the table toppers on goal differential will play Kohima on Monday. Tseminyu may be a debutant district but their players are not new to football, or so it seems. Hammering in 6 goals against Zunheboto and 3 against Mokokchung and you think of them as ‘debutants’ – duh!
Kohima will definitely want to win against Tseminyu and go into the next round as group winners. Whoever tops this group will play the weaker team from Group C. The team that wins this group will have booked a place in the semis, directly (with due apologies to Group C).
Mokokchung, the multiple time champions and beleaguered hosts of the current edition, will play an inconsequential dead rubber match against Zunheboto. It’s like the tournament is over for them even before they started warming up. Here is one last chance for them to redeem themselves before bowing out. They will have to play for pride, and win for the sake of their loyal fans. This campaign will be remembered for a long time as the worst performance by any Mokokchung football team ever.
Zunheboto, the team that has conceded the highest number of goals in the tournament so far, will want to play sporting spoilsport to the hosts. If their game against Kohima is any indication, we know that they are playing the all-or-nothing game. A win for Zunheboto against Mokokchung will be a hard pill to swallow for the hosts.
This analysis was done for the love of football. If there are any errors here, kindly overlook them.
NB: Snowflakes will be ignored
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