JEDDAH, 25 October — First Division champions Asian Soccer and Al-Rai Brothers entered the finals of the 8th SIFF-Badruddin Soccer 2002 at the Ministry of Education Stadium here last Friday.
While champions Asian Soccer rallied to share the spoils at the end of the regulation time for a 1-1 deadlock with a powerhouse Arabian Soccer and prevailed in the penalty shootout at 4-1, in the Second division, Al-Rai Brothers got the better of Eastern Eranad 1-0.
Asian Soccer will meet the winners of second semifinal between Westar-ACC and BCC. Al Rai await the winners of Asiana Blue vs. Malbar semifinal.
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.
Improving match after match Al-Brothers, took control of the proceedings after the initial attacking approach of the much younger and fitter Eranad.
Eastern Eranad had the best scoring chance toward the end of the first half when a striker was rightly placed to bang home a rebound from the goalkeeper. To everybody’s shock, he shot over.
In the second half, the veterans of Al-Rai dictated the tempo, steered by Sebastian D’Douza. As the match seemed petering into a draw, the Eranad goalkeeper, who had been warned by the referee in the fist session for his delaying tactics, caught him this time for the same offense and awarded an indirect freekick inside the box. Seby pushed the ball to Naser whose carpet drive seeped through the "wall" and the ball entered the cage.
Naser was adjudged as the Player of the Match.
As expected Arabian soccer, with the support of a solid defense went on the attack. Basheer fired the first salvo from a freekick which was nicely tipped over by goalkeeper Kabeeruallah. Though a Sakir freekick went a begging and a lurking Harris came close to beating the goalkeeper twice at the other end, the Asian Soccer goal was threatened more.
After another powerful freekick by Basheer, a combination of Sakir, Baputty and Muhammad beat an out-of-positioned goalkeeper Kabeeruallah but defender Anwar came to the rescue of Asian Soccer by clearing the ball from the goalline.
Arabian Soccer maintained the pressure in the second half. On a goalmouth melee midfielder Ishaq who had come to the rescue of the defense under pressure, miskicked the ball into his goal, giving the rivals a 1-0 lead.
In the next minute defender Sharafuddin Bawa of Asian Soccer threaded from his area into the half and then proceeded further with a one-two with Mujeeb and relayed the ball to Harris who instantly sidekicked the ball to the right for Sharafuddin to give a cross. Sharafuddin after one touch did cross the ball but to everybody’s dismay the ball hit the left upright and thudded into the goal for a wild cheer from the whole gallery.
After the goal Asian Soccer dominated. Toward the end veteran Jaffer denied Azeez with a marvelous goalline save. Azeez cut through the defense and after entering the box he was felled by a defender and referee waved on to continue, ignoring a valid penalty. However, Azeez got up quickly and eanred a corner. The dangerous curling shot of Sakir from the corner was met beautifully by Azeez but Jaffer made the goaline save, sending the match into tie-breaker.
In the penalty shootout, Asian Soccer players Sakir, Abdul Jabbar, Ahmed Nani and Azeez made no mistake from the spot whereas but for K.V Jaffer’s clean first shot, other strikers Sajin Babu blasted over and Basheer’s shot was saved by goalkeeper Kabeerullah.
Sharafuddin Bawa of Asian Soccer was selected as the Player of the Match. The umpires who officiated the matches were, Muhammad Salim, Al-Ghamdi, Hidayathullah, Naser and Shukoor. Ashraf Wandoor won the Al-Abeer lucky draw.
Friday’s matches (semifinals): Asiana Blue vs. Al-Salama Malabar 5.00 p.m. and Westar-ACC vs. BCC 6.15 p.m.
