3rd Roots Sports Corporate Futsal tournament November 2008

The tournament was played in a league cum knockout format. For the initial league round teams were divided in to 5 groups of 3 each. The winner of each group would play for the Platinum Cup, the runner up for the Gold Cup and the bottom ones for the Silver Cup. The weekend warriors were raring to fight against each other, some old rivalries were ready to ignite and new ones to be formed.

Group A had TCS the defending champion along with G E Money and Invensys fighting it out against each other. TCS emerged winner of Group A; Group B saw HSBC GLT, Microsoft, and Genpact-B fighting it out. For the top position it was down to match between Microsoft and Genpact-B as both had won their match. It was ultimately Microsoft who topped the group by a solitary goal difference. Group C saw Genpact-A dominate the proceedings and qualify as the group topper. Group D saw ADP top the group with Bank of America –A second and UBS at the bottom. Oracle was the clear favourites to top the Group E; the battle was between Bank of America-B and Wells Fargo India for the 2nd and 3rd place. Wells Fargo India came 2nd with 2 goal difference against BOA-B.

The teams were set for the finals on the second day. For the Platinum Cup there was a play off between Oracle and Microsoft for the last semi final berth. It was a closely fought match which Oracle won by a solitary goal to qualify for the semi finals of the Platinum Cup. In the 1st semifinal Genpact-A defeated ADP by 3-0 with Jayanth from Genpact scoring a hatrick. In the other closely fought semifinal TCS came from behind and won the match 2-1 against Oracle, Ganesh from TCS scored both the important goals to take his team to the Finals of the Platinum Cup. For the 3rd place ADP beat Oracle 5-4 on penalties. The final was between two evenly matched teams, TCS the defending champions and Genpact A the defending Gold cup winner. Through out the tournament TCS never looked like the team they use to be while Genpact A team were in a sublime form and their rhythm could be seen on the field as they defeated TCS 7-2 with Jayanth from Genpact A scoring 4 goals and claimed his second hatrick of the tournament.

For the Gold Cup Semifinals Genpact B team defeated BOA- A team by 2-1 in a closely fought encounter. In the 2nd semifinal G E Money defeated Google by 4-3, for the 3rd place Google beat BOA- A 8-1, Nilasish of Google scored 4 goals. In the final it was the solitary and important goal scored by James of GE Money that sealed the fate of Google defeating them by 1-0 for the Gold Cup.

In the 1st Semifinals of Silver Cup Bank of America defeated Invensys 4-2 and in the 2nd semifinal HSBC GLT beat UBS on penalties 5-2. For the 3rd place UBS defeated Invensys by 6-2, Sunder (UBS) scored 4 goals. Bank of America-B team defeated HSBC GLT by 1-0 to lift the Silver Cup Final.

Andy (G E Money) was adjudged the best Goal Keeper of the tournament for his outstanding glove work. James (G E Money) with 9 goals in 4 matches was the highest goal scorer of the tournament.
At the end of the day football was the ultimate winner as all the teams had a great day and fun on the ground.

Results

Silver Cup-
SF-1: Bank of America beat Invensys 4-2; Fahad (BOA- B) 2; Francis (BOA- B) 1; Syed (BOA- B) 1; Amit (Invensys) 2.
SF- 2: HSBC beat UBS on penalties 5-2.
3rd Place: UBS Beat Invensys 6-2; Sunder (UBS) 4; Kiran (UBS) 1; Rakesh (UBS) 1; Amit (Invensys) 2.
Final: Bank of America- B beat HSBC GLT 1-0; Anil (BOA- B) 1.

Gold Cup-
SF-1: Genpact- B beat Bank of America- A 2-1; Christopher (Genpact-B) 1, Binoy (Genpact- B) 1; Shabbir (BOA- A) 1.
SF-2: GE Money beat Google 4-3; James (GE Money) 2; Tenzin (GE Money) 1; Mark (GE Money) 1; Nilasish (Google) 2; Sathish (Google) 1.
3rd Place: Google beat Bank of America- A 8-1; Nilasish (Google) 4; Mayank (Google) 1; Rahul (Google) 2; Sahil (Google) 1; Sridhar (BOA- A) 1.
Final: GE Money beat Genpact- B 1-0; James (GE Money)1.

Platinum Cup-
SF-1: TCS beat Oracle 2-1; Ganesh (TCS) 2; Saravanan (Oracle) 1.
SF-2: Genpact- A beat ADP 3-0; Jayanth (Genpact- A) 3.
3rd place: ADP beat Oracle on penalties 5-4.
Final: Genpact-A beat TCS 7-2; Jayanth (Genpact- A) 4; Rahul (Genpact) 1; Aries (Genpact) 1; Sona (Genpact) 1; Manish (TCS) 1; Ganesh (TCS) 1.