JEDDAH, 2 November — Curtains ring down on the 12-week SIFF-SADAFCO Soccer 2001 when the finals in both A and B divisions are played at the Ministry of Education Stadium today.
In the semifinal matches played last Friday, Asian Soccer and Malabar Sports qualified for the final by defeating Blue Star A and Blue Star B respectively. Asian Soccer won 2-0 and Malabar 1-0.
The A division semifinal was interesting up to the break with both Asian Soccer and Blue Star A evenly poised. Strikers and wingers of Blue Star A made some overtures with the wind-blow in their favor. The score remained goalless at the break. The post-break session seemed all dominated by Asian Soccer except on the couple of occasions when Blue Star A made some moves near the goalpost but without success.
It was midway through the second half that defender Isak gave Asian Soccer the first goal of the match. And even as they appeared to be playing for time in the last stages of the game, they succeeded in netting their second goal, which came through a well-taken pass by defender Subair from winger Sakeer. Striker Haris Kalattil was adjudged the best player of the match.
For Blue Star A, their goalkeeper Asif did a remarkable job by deflecting the ball at least half a dozen times, which were near-possibilities from Asian Soccer’s point of view. Strikers and wingers of both sides missed the target while taking long-range shots.
At one stage half way through the second half both teams played with only 10 players as one from each side was shown red card by referee Muhammad Salem. In both cases, they had fowled twice.
There was a brief commotion when Asian Soccer’s Haris Kalattil’s header missed the net but hit the lower part of the top goalpost and landed down. They claimed it had dropped inside the net but the referee ruled otherwise.
Air-India’s Middle East Director P.P. Singh was the chief guest of the match, with the airline’s Western Province Manager S.M. Mazharullah the guest of honor. Both teams were introduced to them.
In the B division semifinal both Malabar Sports Club and Blue Star B were goalless at the break. Malabar striker Salih C. scored the only goal of the match. Blue Star B goalkeeper Kassim Ali did a tremendous job for his side through half a dozen saves. Malabar captain and defender Abdul Latif received the best player of the match prize. The chief guest of the match was Maqdum Shareef of Jet Airways.
The interschool matches being played on the sidelines of the SIFF-SADAFCO annual tournament featured a match between Indian International School-Jeddah (IISJ) and Al-Warood International School. Winger Ali, striker Luqman and defender Waleed scored a goal each for IISJ, which now faces Indonesian International School in the final. IISJ Director Iqbal Siddiqui was the chief guest for this match.
Teams: Asian Soccer - Kabeer (goalkeeper), Anwar, Shareef, Shakir Karattil, Shihab TP, Sakeer, Isak, Sameer, Haris Kalattil, Mujeeb Rahman, Subair, Saleem Ali.
Blue Star A - Asif (goalkeeper), Mustafa, Ameen,Yassir, Nazer, Anees Babu, Hamza Kutty, Shafiq (captain), Moosa, Ali mOn, Muhammad Kutty, Said Alvi, Basheer, Muhammad Basheer C.K., Shabeer, Suhail.
Malabar Sports Club - Aziz, Asir Mon, Riaz Muhammad (goalkeeper), Ajmal Babu, Mujeeb O.K., Shahabjan, Salih C., Nizamuddin, Latif (captain), Ghafour, Sharafuddin, Mansoor, Kareem, Mansour, Usman, Mujeeb, Haneef.
Blue Star B - Kassim Ali (goalkeeper), Shamsu, Firozkhan, Ali Kutty, Yahya K.K. (captain), Saleem, Riyaz Babu, D. Majeed, Siddiq, Abou, Mujeeb, Wahab, Shareef Ali, Ummar Farooq, Abdul Ghafour, Firoz Wandoor.
Today’s fixtures: Interschool final - IISJ vs Indonesian International School (4.10 p.m.), B division final - Ryan Arts & Sports vs Malabar Sports (5.10 p.m.); A division final - Friends Sports Club vs Asian Soccer (6.45 p.m.). Indian Consul General Syed Akbaruddin to preside the concluding ceremony and distribute prizes at 8.10 p.m.
