Sanira Waas was unbeatable pulling off a bunch of saves including a penalty as he spurred on the Negombo Youth to defeat Air Force with two late goals.
The 19 year old goalkeeper from Maris Stella College was the barrier denying Air Force at least 3 or 4 goals in the match as the disorganized Negombo Youth defense looked vulnerable every time the Air men went on the attack. It was a tale of two goalkeepers; Waas’ heroics proved vital as the title chasing Negombo Youth capitalized on two mistakes by Air Force goalkeeper Ruwan Arunasiri to score two late goals.
Prior to the match Air Force coach, Tuwan Rahim was boosted by the returning striker Nipuna Bandara.
“Nipuna is fully fit and will start today’s match after 8 matches. It is a big morale booster for the lads and also strengthens my attack which includes Kavindu Ishan and Janaka Chaminda. We have 8 more matches and our target is to get into the top four.” He added.
Like Rahim mentioned his attack forces was threatening from the beginning but were denied by the excellent Waas and poor finishing.
Mohomed Nazar forced the first save from Waas when he fired a powerful left footed effort from the edge of the box after some slick one touch passing on the right flank.
Then Kavindu Ishan had two chances; one through on goal but was fouled outside the area and the other when he went past two defenders only to see his effort with his weaker foot go just over the crossbar.
Majority of the attacks by Air Force came from the right flank with Janaka Chaminda earning his side a penalty from one such attack. Chaminda went into the box but was fouled by Rajarathnam Minon as he was going to take the shot. Kavindu stepped up for the spot kick only to see Sanira Waas dive the correct was to deny the goal.
Waas who had a stormer of a first half went on to deny Nipuna Bandara, Kavindu and Chaminda from close range as the demoralized Air Force went into halftime without having to show anything for their good work.
The second half was not much different as Waas bailed out the scrappy Negombo Youth defense on a few occasions. Kavindu was played onside one on one with the keeper and Waas stood his ground forcing Kavindu into an early shot which he scuffed it wide.
Thereafter he denied Nipuna’s shot with his foot and continued to be a thorn in the back of Kavindu with another brilliant save.
In the final ten minutes Air Force became desperate for a goal and pushed men forward in search of it but a mistake from Arunasiri cost them a goal. Arunasiri came way off his line to clear an unthreatening cross but was unable to punch the ball away as Kumara Fernando connected a looping header into the net.
To make matters worse Arunasiri conceded a penalty deep into injury time when the opposition player was going away from the goal. Kasun Jayasuriya’s shot was saved by Arunasiri but couldn’t stop the rebound being tucked away by Kasun with the last kick of the game.
“Absolutely happy with my performance today. I took leave from the national squad to concentrate on my A/L’s so didn’t have much practice early in the season but now I am playing well. I am a very young keeper playing with the likes of Sri Lanka’s great players in Kasun Jayasuriya. Their support has been amazing. This has been my best performance so far.” An ecstatic Sanira Waas told ThePapare.com.
“We created the chances but sad to say our finishing was way off. Their keeper had a brilliant game but we could have got a goal or two. At the end the two mistakes by our goalkeeper cost us the three points.” A dejected Rahim added after the match.
