I-League: Rajasthan United Football Club maintain fifth spot with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Namdhari

Jaipur: An inspiring guidance by renowned sports scientist and psychologist Prof Dr Jan Mayer of Germany a couple of days ago seemed to have done its magic as Rajasthan United Football Club defeated formidable Namdhari 2-1 in their crucial I-League match at the Vidhyadhar Nagar Stadium here on Sunday.
Mayer's pep talk fired RUFC players as they displayed an excellent performance to pocket three important points despite a stiff resistance from their fierce opponents.
The home team was leading 2-0 at half time. Young forward Seiminmang Manchong (41') opened the RUFC account in the 41st minute. Skipper Alain Oyarzun added one more by converting a penalty in the fourth minute of the injury-time.
RUFC now maintained their position at the fifth spot having garnered 30 points from 20 games. It was their eighth victory and third in the last five games.
With their third straight defeat, Namdhari slipped down further to the eighth spot with just 26 points from the same number of ties.
Manipur striker Manchong scored a sensational goal towards the end of the first session with a long-range drive which landed on the roof of the net beating the diving hands of Namdhari goalkeeper Nishan Singh.
A few minutes later, RUFC forward Maicol Cabrera brought down inside the box which resulted in the penalty. Captain Oyarzun converted as he struck a rebound from his own penalty, which was initially saved by Nishan Singh.
After the change of ends, Namdhari launched several attacks at the RUFC citadel. In the 54th minute they got success when Vicente converted a free kick to reduce the margin.
Boosted by the goal, Namdhari accumulated pressure in the closing stages of the game but could not break the strong defence of RUFC.
Rajasthan United FC will play their penultimate match of the league against Delhi on March 28, before they round-up the season with a game against Inter Kashi on April 6.
Jogeshwar Garg, Ram Prasad, Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, Sumit Kumar Yadav, Pawan Ojha, RUFC chairman KK Tak, RUFC director Roshni Tak, RUFC chief mentor Koushik Moulik, Dietmar Beiersdorfer, former German football team defender and CEO, FC Ingolstadt (Germany), Manual Sfafner, international director, FC Ingolstadt, Fabian Veit, international director, TSG Hoffenheim, Germany, Carl Monteiro, head of marketing, TSG Hoffenheim and Debayan Chanda, associate director TCG Digital witnessed the Sunday's thrilling match as guests.