Sri Lanka open SA Games soccer campaign in style

Beat Maldives one-nil

Bernard Perera

SA GAMES SOCCER: Hosts Sri Lanka launched their 10th South Asian Games soccer campaign in style with a historic 1-0 win over Maldives in their first round Group 'A' match played under lights at Sugathadasa Stadium, Colombo yesterday.

The SA Games soccer competition, which has attracted eight teams, is an under-23 event. Last night's win was Sri Lanka's first win over Maldives in 15 years at the SA Games history. The last occasion when Sri Lanka beat Maldives at SA Games was way back in 1991 when Colombo hosted the mega event.

The Lankans played a relaxed game right from the kick off. They continued it for nearly 15 minutes by keeping the ball in their territory. This they did to judge their opponents' style of play. The Maldivians too did the same.

But it was the visitors who got the advantage at early stages by coming closer of scoring on not less than three occasions. But all their efforts were diminished by the superb saves from the Sri Lankan skipper and the custodian Sandun Devinda.

Skipper Devinda led from the front and was a tower of strength for the others. They gave the maximum support to their captain.

The honours were shared in the scoreless first half. The Lankans had only one shot at the goal. But the local defenders too did their part well to keep the opponents at bay.

The Maldivians made fast moves towards their opponents territory in the first half but lacked penetration to put the finishing touches. The first 45 minutes ended with a blank scorecard.

The Sigaporean referee, Abas Daud showed yellow cards to E.B.N. Charaka and K.M.T.N. Kumara in the eighth and 36th minutes respectively.

After 'lemons', both sides played fine soccer to thrill the large gathering in the first event of the eight-nation Games.

When the second half was only a few minutes old, the referee showed his third warning signal to Lankan player - L.A.T.S. Bandara. At this stage the Sri Lanka coach, Jang Jung made a wise move by introducing D.A. Nimal Fernando to replace K.R.P. Fernando.

Fenando started well and had many good moves for nearly 12 minutes but failed to find the nets. Twelve minutes later, Fernando collected the ball 40m from the goal line to dribble past three opponents and fired a 20m shot that baffled the Maldivian goalkeeper to reach net. That gave Sri Lanka a vital 1-0 lead, to which they held on until the long whistle.

Yesterday's match was the biggest hurdle Sri Lanka had to face to finish on top in their group.

The Bulgarian-born Maldivian coach Lordan Ivanov Stoykov said though his side lost, he was satisfied with the game his lads played. "The goal keeper is only 17 years and he does not have enough experience at this level.

With more experience he is sure to come up with a better performance," he said. Stoykov also said that he not happy with draw. "Sri Lanka does not play for almost four days, whereas the other teams, including Maldives, have to play their next games 48 hours later," he explained.

However, he was optimistic that the young Maldivian team would reach at least the last four. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka coach Jang Jung said that the host team did not live up to expectations, though they registered a narrow win.

"They did not put out everything what I was expecting from them. But the way they played today was satisfactory. They have to do much better in the games to come. They could play much better. Sri Lanka will have to work together to improve more.

I am sure they will stick to the set plan in the future and do the needful," said Jung.

India-Afghanistan drawn

The other Group 'B' match between India and Afghanistan which was played earlier in the day ended in a nil-all draw. In this game India had the chance to go ahead in the second half but due to poor finishing touches by their strikers, the Indians could not find that winning goal.

Second draw

The third game of the opening day, between Bangladesh and Nepal, too ended in a draw. After a scoreless first half, both teams did their scoring after the lemons to settle for a one-all draw.

Bangladesh took the lead shortly after the breather but their joy was short lived. Nepal found the equaliser when a penalty was awarded to them. The Nepalese made no mistake with the shot to settle for a draw.