Three goals in seven minutes by the Zahira College in a blistering opening half earned them a spot in the final of the Kotmale Chox U19 Schools Football Tournament with a 3-1 win against Maris Stella College at the Sugathadasa Stadium.
Maris Stella College entered the semi final with a convincing 3-0 win against St.Benedict’s College while Zahira had a hard fought 1-0 win against Joseph Vaz College, in the quarter finals.
Zahira’s resolve was tested in the group stage itself against Hameed Al Husseinie as well as against Joseph Vaz. However Maris Stella had an easy passage to the semi- final without any alarm bells ringing at their defense with their midfield and forwards dominating play.
Against Zahira, the Maris Stella defense was put under the threat by the speedy Zahira strikers. The slow Maris Stella defense was no match for the Zahira forwards as they scored three goals to the utter dismay of the visitors. If seemed as the skillful Maris Stella attack had to do all the work if they were to win the match but it was too much for the quartet of Jeewantha Fernando, Anton Fernando, Dilip Peiris and Subashana Fernando to overhaul.
The opening goal came in the 13th minute when Mohomed Shaheel was sent one on one with the keeper with a wonderful through ball and he made no mistake in slotting it past the goalkeeper to give the hosts the lead. The slowness and bad positioning was identified by the Zahira players and they kept peppering the ball over the defense in an unrelenting quarter of an hour.
Shaheel added his second when he got on the end of a free kick totally unmarked to control it well and drill it into the net from close range in the 18th minute. Maris Stella defense was looking for an offside which was not there and had already given up and Shaheel was all on his own with just the keeper to beat.
If the Maris Stella fans were shocked with the 2-0 score line, two minutes later they would have thought they were in their worst nightmare. This time the lob over the defense fell to Mohomed Faroodh who scored it on the volley past the on rushing goalkeeper. Again Maris Stella center back Mithunga Fernando’s poor positioning, lack of awareness and speed was highlighted while nothing can be taken away from Faroodh who showed strength and determination to hold off Mithunga and score.
It was all up to the Maris Stella attack led by their star player Jeewantha Fernando who earned a place in the final list of Airtel Rising Star Challenge, to have training at Manchester United. He made it a point to get back in defense as well as in attack showing great heart and determination to get his side back into the game. Jeewantha’s hard work paid off when he earned a free kick on the left and the inviting delivery was headed in by Dilip Peiris in the 36th minute to make it 3-1.
Next Jeewantha drilled in a fierce left footed shot from the edge of the box which was going to the top far corner until Sri Lanka U19 goalkeeper Mohomed Usman pulled off a magical save to keep the score 3-1. A part of the victory was due to Usman’s heroics as he had an excellent game between the posts.
Jeewantha showed why he was the most feared player on the field, this time coming from the midfield he put in an exquisite through ball to Subashana Fernando but his effort was well saved by the goalkeeper, Mohomed Usman. However Subashana should have done well and scored the second for the visitors.
In the second half Zahira made the mistake of sitting back, that led Maris Stella the freedom and attack more in search of the goals. Subashana earned another free kick and Maris Stella’s set move almost produced a goal. It was a well -placed kick by Jeewantha towards Sandeep Fernando, another one of Sri Lanka youth players but there weren’t anyone at the end of his cross goal effort to put it into the goal.
It was end to end football in the latter stages and Zahira’s Aqeel Ahamed was fouled inside the box in the 35th minute. The resulting penalty by Zulfikar Ahamed was way off target. Minutes before the full time whistle Mohomed Shaheel had the opportunity to get his hat trick after going one on one with the keeper but he hit his effort straight at the keeper.
