New Youngs and Isipatana storm into the finals

Bernard Perera

New Youngs Sports Club from Wennappuwa made their way to the final of the Old Bens Golden Jubilee Soccer Tournament when they defeated Blue Star Sports Club by four goals to two in a tie breaker shoot out at the SBC ground, Kotahena yesterday, Blue Star SC were in front at lemaons (2-1).

The match got off to a fine start with both teams giving of their best. The ball was seen going from side to side but none finding the right target to score. It took 18 minutes for Blue Star SC to get into the lead when M.A.M. Farzeen’s corner kick was headed to the goal by M.H.M. Rameez (1-0).

New Youngs coming under pressure at this stage fought well for a further twelve minutes. Mohamed Azmeer newcomer to the Kalutara team in a solo effort put his side further ahead by shooting a goal from 30 metres which gave them a steady lead (2-0).

New Youngs went on a full scale attack but the defenders held them strongly. With three minutes left for the break the referee penalised M. Murshid in the danger area and awarded a penalty for Wennappuwa team, and also pulled out the Red Card on Murshid.

At this stage Blue Star’s first goal scorer Ramaeez who had an argument with referee G.N. Robesh too was sent off the field to everyone’s surprise. This reduced the number of players to nine for the Kalutara team. Rajitha Javilal made no mistakes with the kick and reduced the lead (2-1).

After the turn around Blue Star had to be on the defensive rather than going on the attack with only nine players doing service. But they managed well to hold the New Youngs for 30 minutes.

At this stage a free kick was awarded to Wennappuwa team for an infringement from 40 metres away. W.S.I. Fernando taking the kick sent a good ball for Wasu Nurudeen’ to head at the right target (2-2).

During the last 15 minutes both teams failed to add to the score and the final whistle went off with scores level at 2-2. Referee G.N. Robesh introduced he tie breaker system which saw the Wennappuwa team score 4 goals while Blue Star getting only two goals 4-2 (2-2).

Bens out of final

In the schools segment of the same tournament saw St. Benedict’s College Kotahena crash out of the finals losing to Isipatana College also in a tie breaker system (4-3). The game ended in a nil all draw after 90 minutes of play.

It was a surprise victory for Isipatana as Bens were the hot favourites in this game and also were in full control of the game having almost 60-70 per cent of possession. They never let their opponent to enter the danger area, and kept the ball moving into the Isipatana territory.

Yesterday the Bens strikers could not keep upto their standard. They never tried a shot at the goal. On the other hand Isipatana custodian too became a big threat foiling many goal scoring attempts.

With both sides strikers failing to score during the 90 minutes saw the tie breaker system being introduced. The main striker Asela Madusanka failed with the first kick which gave Bens a tough time.

Isipatana will now confront Hameed Al Husseinia MV in the final on Saturday February 7, while in the Club section Ratnam SC will clash with New Youngs SC at the same venue in the second game.