Renown clinch Dialog Champions Trophy

Bernard PERERA

Renown Sports Club from Kotahena clinched the inaugural Dialog Champions Trophy defeating Air Force in a tie breaker three goals to one after the final ended in a two all draw.

It was Renown’s reserve goalie who paved the way for his side to go away with the Cup saving three consecutive penalty kicks from Airmen.

The regular goal keeper of the side who is out of the country doing national service with the team gave him the opportunity for him to stand between the posts yesterday.

This superlative performance also helped him to receive the award for the most valuable player.

In fact he did a fine job during the 90 minutes of play saving as many as five goals. This resulted in the team to return for lemons with a blank score sheet.

The second session began with both teams fighting a grim battle to gain the most wanted goal to take the lead. Sampath Perera made no mistake with his kick in the 60th minute to put Airmen into the lead.

Sampath Perera in a solo effort from the left wing pierced through the defence line and with a neat kick from 25 metres found the net to further extend the lead in the 68th minute.

There onwards young Renown strikers had to work hard and penetrated the defence lines of Airmen bringing in good results through the boot of M.N.M. Nafeer in the 74th minute.

Airmen had to strengthen the defence to hold onto their lead, but the Renown forwards made many inroads without any success.

The injury time saw Nafeer once again strike for Renown SC to level scores. With his goal referee G.N. Rubesh blew the final whistle and introduced the break system to decide the winner of the grand final.

The first kick taken by Air Force skipper was saved by M.F.M. Hajmal. M.L.M. Imtiyaz’s kick too was saved by Air Force Custodian. H.D. Mangala and G. Raheem of Air Force failed to find the correct target. But Renown skipper M.I.M. Zain, M. Nazarullah and S.H. Riyal scored through their kicks to down the Airmen (3-1) 2-2.

The winners Renown SC received the Dialog Champions Trophy and a cash award of Rs. 700,000 while the Air Force received Rs. 500,000.

Meanwhile, M.N.M. Fazal who appeared in the senior league for the first time was awarded the most prestigious individual award a soccerite can win the Golden Boot award. To receive this he had a total of 14 goals during the tournament. His tally of goals also helped his side maintain an unbeaten record throughout the championship.