Kripa Sharma

Lalitpur, March 18:

National league champions Three Star Club (TSC) have been practicing hard for the upcoming AFC President’s Cup Football Tournament to be held in Kathmandu from May 4-14.

The tournament, which features eight national league cha-mpions from Group ‘C’ of Asia, is the first high-profile tournament for any Nepali team in terms of prize money. The winner will get $1,00,000, while the runners-up will receive $50,000. The losing semi-finalists will get $25,000 each. The pressure has stood like a mountain for Three Star. They have won just one tilte in the last four tournaments this year. And striker Surendra Tamang is still struggling with injuries, and midfielders Bijay Gurung and Lok Bandhu Gurung have not been able to attend the training. Noting the recent slump, coach Dhruba KC has been concentrating more on stamina building. “We are putting the boys under rigorous training three days a week to help them in stamina building. We will examine their physical endurance through Cooper Test next week,” said the coach.

Under Cooper Test, a fit player should run 2,800 metres in 12 minutes. The players will be tested at the synthetic track at Dasharath Stadium, said KC. He also disclosed that the training, which was planned for three phases, had to be cut down to two. And that the second phase will include team tactics. Three Star Club management is also pushing hard. They have set up a technical team — which includes coaches Dhruba KC, Jai Krishna Shrestha, Aman Adhikari and Sujan KC — to suggest the management about the technical aspects of the team. “Our boys are going to play against physically tough players in other teams. That’s why we have been focusing towards conditioning them, strengthening their endurance and stamina,” said Sujan KC, who is also a qualified trainer at the US Football Academy.

Trying to give hundred per cent, Three Star have already included some known faces — Rajesh Shahi (MMC), Anjan KC (JYC), Nirajan Khadka (Friends), Ujjwol Manandhar (Sankata) and Parlay Rajbhandari (NRT) — in the team and are negotiating with some others as per the demands made by technical committee. The draw of the tournament — also featuring Blue Star Sports Club (Sri Lanka), Tai Power Company (Chinese Taipei), Dardoi Dynamo (Kyrgyzstan), Hello United (Combodia), Transport United (Bhutan), Metallurg (Tazakzstan), and Wapda (Pakistan) — is scheduled for March 22 at the AFC Headquarters in Malaysia.