June 20: Toffichoo Junior Champions Cup, an inter-school futsal tournament, has kicked off from Tuesday, June 19. A total of 105 school teams are taking part in the four-day tournament that is divided into two categories U-12 and U-14. The first day of the tournament saw 24 teams of Under 12 category compete against each other at two venues: Baneshwor Futsal and National Sports Centre. The 12 teams at each venue were divided into 4 groups with 3 teams each, with the winners and runners-up progressing through to the knockout quarterfinal stage, the organisers said in a statement.

At Baneshwor Futsal, Pushpa Batika and Apple International progressed from Group A. Similarly Rajarshi Gurukul topped Group B and KTM Pragya Kunja qualified as runners-up. In Group C, Olympia won the group with Vidhya Sanskar finishing below it. Rosebud and KVS were first and second in Group D.

At National Sports Centre, GEMS hammered 5 goals past Nightingle in the first match of the day and then beat LA by 6 goals to 2 to top Group A; LA finished second by beating Nightingle 5-1. Group C was a tight affair with AVM, South Point and Pushpa Sadan all winning one game each; which meant goal difference decided the top two places that went to Pushpa Sadan and South Point respectively.Similarly Rato Bangala topped Group B and Nepal Tara qualified as runners-up. St Xavier’s and Premier were first and second in Group D.

The quarterfinal match between GEMS and South Point finished 3-0 to GEMS, similarly, LA ran out easy winners over Pushpa Sadan with a score of 6-3. In the other quarterfinal between St Xavier’s and Nepal Tara,the winner was decided through tie-breaker, with St Xavier’s coming out on top in the end.

Winner from each venue will then square up against each other in the mega semifinal for a place in the final, which will be held on Friday, June 22, at Grassroot Futsal.