JEDDAH, 1 November — Former champions Westar-ACC (Asiatic Cultural Center) and Malabar entered the First Division and Second Division finals of the SIFF-Badruddin Soccer tournament 2002 at the Ministry of Education Stadium here last Friday.
Hot-favorites Westar-ACC struggled to get the better of a fighting Bharath Cultural Center (BCC) 1-0. The important goal was scored by Sameer. Westar-ACC will take on holders Asian Soccer in final.
In the Second Division semifinal, Al-Salama Malabar continued their dream run by upsetting Asiana Blue through tie-breaker and set up a final with Al-Rai Brothers. The teams shared two goals in the regulation time and in the resultant penalty shootout Malabar players held their nerves to outsmart a prodigal Asiana Blue at a humiliating 3-1 after four kicks each. International Indian School will lock horns with Jeddah Prep and Grammar School in the final of the inter-school affair . The three-month long football tournament, organized by Saudi Indian Football Forum, is mainly sponsored by Badruddin Medical Group. The co-sponsors are Air-India, Jet Airways, Singapore Airlines, Gulf Air, Qatar Airways , Al-Rayan Polyclinics, Al-Abeer Polyclinics and Rafa Polyclinic and LIC of India.
Asiana Blue failed to live up to the expectations against giantkillers Malabar. They flopped very badly to combine in the middle and to make things tough for their rivals always double-teamed key shooter Sadat. Malabar grabbed the driver’ s seat soon as they earned a penalty when Sajil was felled in the box by Rahmath. Defender Usman Khalid came forward and converted the penalty easily. While the goal worked as a morale-booster for underdogs Malabar, Asiana who had ample talent failed to recover. They instead became more and more frustrated as the match continued. However, Asiana camp heaved a sigh of relief toward the end when their sharp shooter Sadat broke loose from his two markers to collect the ball from midfielder Majeed and cracked at the goal suddenly to surprise the hitherto dependable Malabar goalkeeper Riyaz to take the match into tie-breaker in which Usman Khalid, Harris and Ashir scored for Malabar in four kicks.
For Asiana, Mohammad Ali scored the penalty bu the other three failed to convert.
Malabar goalkeeper Riaz won Player of the Match.
BCC gave a tough time to hot-favorites Westar-ACC from the kick off. Their midfielder Azeezullah was the livewire in the center and speedy Gafoor on the left and Sayeed on the right threatened the ACC goal. During this period ACC lost their key defender Ajith with injury. But his replacement Shihabuddin played a great game . After the break ACC enjoyed the edge but failed to score the much-needed goal for victory. As the match seemed to be heading for another penalty shootout talented Sameer, vho was the best player of the tournament last year, struck. His sudden and unexpected long shot surprised everyone and the BCC keeper to earn the winner for ACC. The umpires who officiated the matches were, Mohammed Abdullah Salim, Fahad Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, Abdul Rahman Hamza Al-Hosawi, Naser, Shukoor and Ayoub.
Today’s finals: Inter-school — Indian School vs. Jeddah Prep. (4.00 p.m.) Second Division — Al-Rai Brothers vs. Malabar ( 5.00 p.m.). First Division — Asian Soccer vs. Westar-ACC ( 6.45 p.m.) .
