Zahira College defeated St. Mary’s College, Negombo 2-0 in the All Island Division I Championship Final further cementing their legacy as Kings of schools football.
It was a nervy start by Zahira but got into their groove and went into halftime with a one goal advantage. Soon after halftime a mistake by St. Mary’s defense gifted the second and dominated play though they were unable to add another.
Zahira came into the final defeating St. Sebatian’s College, Katuneriya 3-0 while their quarter final match against St. Joseph’s College was a walkover.
“We are confident playing at home with the home support. Few experienced U19 and U23 players also in the side which makes us stronger. Today we are going in as favourites,” coach of Zahira College Mohamed Roomy shared his thoughts prior to the match.
St. Mary’s College had a tough quarter final meeting with another one of the giants in football, St. Benedict’s – surviving on penalties after it finished 1-1 at full time. In the semi-final the lads from Negombo defeated Nalanda 3-1.
“We’ve been performing well. Hoping Ashen Peiris and captain Eranga will perform really well and even though we are up against a strong Zahira side we will be attacking from the opening whistle,” Nawab Prince, St.Mary’s coach told ThePapare.com.
St.Mary’s were true to their coach’s words as they attacked from the beginning, taking advantage of an uncharacteristic nervous start from the hosts. The lads from Negombo earned themselves a couple of corners and free kicks but were unable to convert much to the relief of the majority Zahira crowd.
A golden opportunityto take a shock lead was missed by St. Mary’s when on a two on one situation the attacking St. Mary’s player went for glory without laying off the ball to the on rushing Ashen Peiris – and the shot was well blocked by Sri Lanka U19 goalkeeper Uzman Hameed.
After dominating the initial 15 minutes it was the hosts that started to make the mark lead by Mohamed Humaid – who has also represented Sri Lanka U23 earlier this year in AFC U23 Qualifiers. Humaid went on a few of his Messi-esque runs which rattled the St. Mary’s defense and put them on the back foot.
As a result of one of those runs by Humaid the defense failed to clear the ball and it also evaded the on rushing goalkeeper but the ball was cleared off the goal-line by the ever alert Sharmal Fernando much to the agony of Zahira.
Zahira created chances at will but had to wait until the dying seconds of the first half to take the lead through Humaid. Humaid sent a powerful left footed effort from outside the box which crashed into the corner leaving Tishan Eranga with no chance of saving it. The goal demoralized the visitors who had played equally well in attack and defense in the first half.
However in the second half it was a different story as Zahira completely out classed the visitors and put the game to bed early in the second half capitalizing from the St. Mary’s mistake. The defense failed to clear a back pass and Mohamed Shafir was on hand for an easy tap in to make it 2-0.
St. Mary’s pushed men forward which left gaps in the defense but Zahira couldn’t take full use of those opportunities and two Ashen Peiris thunderbolts were well saved by Hameed to keep a clean sheet on their way to becoming All Island Champions.
“Initially thought it was an easy game but St. Mary’s played really well in the first half and could have got a few goals but our goalkeeper was brilliant. Had a few injury worries in defense with our captain having a niggle from yesterday’s rugger match but all in all we adapted well to the situatioins,” a jubilant Mohamed Roomy told ThePapare.com
ThePapare.com’s Man of the Match: Mohamed Humaid
