JEDDAH, 12 October — Friends Sports Club beat Hyderabad XI by three goals to nil in the A division league of the SIFF-Sadafco Soccer 2001 at the Ministry of Education Stadium last Friday. The B division fixture between Novodaya and Blue Star B ended in a draw with a goal each.
By virtue of their performances, slots for the A division semifinalists are almost finalized. Among the four semifinalists, Friends Sports Club are on top with the margin of victories they have scored in the league, which began nine weeks ago. ACC-A and Asian Soccer follow them. Either Blue Star A or Asian Yellow will fill the fourth slot. Today’s A division match between Asian Yellow and Asian Soccer will determine whether the former will make the fourth semifinalist. The B division semifinalists will be announced today when the International Indian School-Jeddah plays against Al-Salama Brothers.
Today also begins the interschool matches initiated by the league organizers. Three schools - International Indian School-Jeddah (IISJ), Al-Wurood International School and Indonesian International School are taking part. In the first match being played at 4 p.m. Al-Wurood will play against the Indonesian school.
The interschool matches will be of 50 minutes each — each session of 25 minutes. The IISJ, which also figures in the B division of the league, plays against Al-Salama Brothers at 5 p.m. The scheduled A division match will follow at 6.15 p.m.
The A division match played last Friday looked evenly placed for Friends Sports Club and Hyderabad XI with both failing to score in the first half.
Hyderabad XI could have gained a lead but their strikers paid the penalty for weak shots. There were also chances wasted by Friends, for instance, when striker Ghafoor shot straight into Hyderabad goalkeeper Zubair Siddiqui’s waiting hands. Likewise, Friends goalkeeper Hamza also gave a good account of himself by preventing quite a few moves from the Hyderabad strikers. Thereafter, Hyderabad’s winger Azizullah wasted his long-range shot, which went much above the goalpost.
With both teams remaining goalless in the first half, Hyderabad players went on the offensive after the halftime. But soon Friends became aggressive and their game plan started giving them dividends. Friends scored the first goal when their captain defender Hamid took a corner kick which striker Ghafoor well steered and passed on to winger Sayeed who made no mistake in netting the ball. Next, winger Avru’s corner shot was well taken by winger Hamza to give Friends their second goal. Just before the final whistle, Friends improved their tally with a third goal when striker Hussain converted a pass from winger Avru. Friends defender Afzal was adjudged the man of the match.
Gulf Air’s Saudi Arabia Manager Abdul Malik Al-Saei and Sales Manager Hatim Kheera were the chief guests of the A division match.
In the B division match played earlier, Blue Star B’s Ummar Farouk gave a good exhibition of ball control and passing, while Navodaya captain defender Shahjahan
Appeared to be in excellent control of his team’s defense. It was a penalty kick from Blue Star’s captain striker Yahiya that brought off the first goal of the match. Navodaya’s winger Muhammad Naushad netted the equalizer after the ball had bounced back from the goalpost.
Navodaya could have ended with a win if Blue Star’s B’s goalkeeper Qasim Ali had failed to hold the penalty kick. Dr. Thyagarajan of Al-Abeer Polyclinic was the chief guest of the match.
