After a long pause in history, the annual traditional encounter between two footballing giants, De Mazenod College, Kandana and St. Benedict’s College, Colombo 13 is ready to kick – off once again on the 28th of October, 2016 at the De Mazenod College Grounds.
History
The first recorded annual encounter between De Mazenod and St. Benedict’s was held in the year 1968 under the name of Samarasinghe Trophy, in an era where organized school tournaments did not exist, rather annual encounters between schools.
This match was of high significance to both schools and with the opening of the Sugathadasa Stadium it was shifted to the stadium and played amidst thousands of spectators.
Although St. Benedict’s were able to gather the major share of honours in the 7 years the match was played, De Mazenod under the captaincy of Upali Silva were victorious in 1974, the last time the Samarasinghe Trophy annual encounter was held.
LIVE – De Mazenod College v St.Benedict’s College (Nihal Mendis Memorial Football Encounter)
De Mazenod college v St.Benedict’s College – Nihal Mendis Memorial Football Encounter
Nihal Mendis Memorial Football Encounter between De Mazenod college and St.Benedict’s College – Live on the 28th October 3.30pm onwards.
With the changing of Principals, the civil unrest within the country and the advent of school tournaments like Brazil Cup, ANCL Trophy and the Singer Shield, this traditional encounter was discontinued thereafter although De Mazenod and St. Benedict’s met each other quite often in the afore said tournaments, especially when they made it into all the finals of the 3 tournaments in one year.
An attempt to restart the match once again was made in 2014 during the re-opening of the De Mazenod Grounds. The trophy renamed as the Rev. Bro. Michael Roberts Memorial Trophy was won by St. Benedict’s that year but the encounter failed to continue the next year.
The 1997 All Island Champion De Mazenod team, headed by former Sri Lankan skipper Chathura Maduranga Weerasinghe, have taken the initiative of organizing the traditional encounter once again renamed the Nihal Mendis Memorial Trophy in honour of the great Mazenodian player and coach who passed away in 2014.
Season thus far
De Mazenod have had the better season so far this year being champions at Divisional and Zonal levels, runners up of Western Province and quarter finalists at the All Island stage of the National Schools Games Football Tournament.
Seven star Pramuditha leads De Mazenod rout of Hindu College
They were also able to make it into the knockout stage of the Kotmale U19 Schools Football Championship becoming runners up of the ‘Group of Death’ defeating the likes of St. Joseph’s College, Colombo , Holy Cross College, Kalutara and also St. Benedict’s College in the match held earlier this year.
Although St. Benedict’s haven’t made much progress in the main version of the game this year, they have made up for it by becoming runners up of the Cup Championship in the Josephian Futsal Carnival and the Bowl Champions of the 12th Zahira Super 16 Soccer 7’s tournament a couple of weeks back where they defeated De Mazenod in the semi-finals.
Maris Stella breeze past St. Benedict’s to kick start championship defence
Key Players
The visiting team have placed much hope in their midfielders, the backbone of the team, and are counting on the performance of the likes of Niroshan Deenu and Malindu Perera during the game.
Also Shenal Kavinda, the striker who joined earlier this year will also be pivotal in their success.
De Mazenod however are more concentrated on their attack and have faith on their forward trio Pramuditha Gunasekara, Thuwan Raheem and U17 captain Sudan Manitha putting up a good show and getting the better of the Benedictine defence.
Sri Lankan cap and skipper of De Mazenod Ranju Silva is also a player to keep an eye out for as well as defender Ravindu Hansaka who has been on very good form lately.
Thoughts from the captains
Benedictine skipper Thiwanka Nawodya said;
We hope to play a better game than the last time we faced Mazenod. We have put a lot of faith in our midfielders and intend to retain the title we won in 2014.
Mazenodian captain Ranju Silva;
We defeated Bens the last time we met in the Kotmale tournament and this time we hope to do it again but with a better score. We intend on playing up a better game than we did in our last game against Zahira College and take back the title from St. Benedict’s.
De Mazenod College Squad 2016
St.Benedict’s College Squad 2016
