ONGC seal first division spot

Playing like a true champ, ONGC defeated Sesa Football Academy, Goa convincingly and booked their berth for the coveted I-League division 1. Early strike by the strikers Babatunde and Tarif Ahmed made the difference and the rookies from Sesa never got a chance to get back to the game.

ONGC clinched the license to play for the I-league

division 1 next season with absolute dominance. Their endeavor in the final leg has been a revelation. They have played like a champion, wining all but one match so far, and already achieved what they wanted before playing their last round match.

The oilmen took the field to make early inroads. They got their first goal in the 5th minute thru Nigerian Badmus Babatunde. 13 minutes later it was time for Babatunde’s partner Tarif to score the second goal. Sitting pretty on a two-goal lead, ONGC played posessional, controlled the game and kept the Sesa wards at bay.

After coming very close to I-League division 1 in the last two seasons, the Mumbai outfit finally made it this time.


Pathetic display by Mohammedan

Mohammedan Sporting continued their dismal show by playing a 1-1 draw with Malabar United. Mohammedan took the field leaving behind their foreign imports that were unceremoniously released by the club management owing to pathetic performance in the final rounds of I-League division 2.

They started-off in a shaky note, Malabar quickly utilized the situation and took lead in the 8th minute of the match by a goal from Nigerian Loveday. Neelandra Deewan scored the equalizer in 56th minute.

Mohammedan should consider themselves lucky for not conceding any more goals. Malabar should have scored at least 4 more goals. They simply could not score goals, missed penalty, missed easiest of the easy sitters.

Result:

• Malabar Utd  (Loveday-8’) 1 Mohammedan Sporting (Neelandra-56’) 1
• ONGC (Babatunde-5' and Tarif-18’) 2 Sesa Football Academy 0

Next Match - May 24 (Round 7):

• HAL versus Sesa Football Academy, 2 pm
• Vasco versus Mohammedan Sporting, 4 pm

Mohammedan waste points again, out of contention for division 1

The Kolkata powerhouse could not hold on to the 1st half one-goal lead and split points with Oil India. With this draw they are mostly out of race for qualifying next season’s I-league division 1. Vasco thrashed Malabar United 4-0 in the other match and kept their hunt alive for division 1.

Mohammedan took the field minus 2 regular players, Zoheb and Babin due to double booking. They meant business and started attacking from the beginning.

In 21st minute, Oil India GK somehow manages to avert defender Sanjay Parte’s long ranger for a corner. Satyajit Basu takes the corner, Amrit Pal Singh who was out of injury and playing his first match came from nowhere, and heads the ball to the goal.

10 minutes later from a nice thru from Theo, Edu speedily enters into the Oil India box from the right side and back-heels to Theo. The later over-ran him and fails to covert from a nice move.

Mohammedan medio, Satyajit Basu, who didn’t have a decent game today, committed a big mistake in the 33rd minute, he chest-traps to clear the ball from defense, an opponent player ball picks the ball from the open area just outside the box, and passes to foreign striker Waheed. Waheed shots the ball outside the crossbar.

Oil India kept attacking in the later part of 1st half, keeper Nassem Akhtar kept them at bay by with some splendid saves.

Mohammedan defense never looked settled and the oilmen took the advantage to score the equalizer in 70th minute from Zaidin Hmar.

Soon after the goal, veteran striker Dipendu (replacing Theo) and Nilendra Deewan was brought in to propel Mohammedan attack.

Edu, who looked focused, had a good game today. He engineered several attacks from the left wing, however, his shots were either saved by the keeper or missed by a whisker.

Everybody thought that Mohammedan Sporting should qualify to the next round, it has been a pathetic display by them so far!

Result:

• Mohammedan Sporting Club 1 (Amrit Pal Singh-21') Oil India 1 (Zaidin Hmar-70')
• Vasco 4 (Joy Ferrao-26' and 65', Koko Sakibo-25' and 90+1' [penalty]) Malabar United 0

Next Match - May 17 (Round 5):

• HAL versus ONGC, 2 pm
• NISA, Manipur versus Sesa Football Academy, 4 pm  

Confident HAL march on

A confident looking HAL shrugged-off early jitters and defeated Vasco 2-1. Vasco initially unsettled HAL’s campaign and took the lead in the 2nd minute. HAL came back strongly into the match and scored a goal in each half. In the earlier match, Malabar United defeated NISA 1-0.

A defensive error by Bimal Minz gave Vasco an opportunity to take the lead. Sibra Narzary received the ball from foreigner Koko, coming from the right side fast-paced Sibra dribbled past Bimal Minz, and took an accurate shot to the near post. The ball went past to the left of keeper Amar Deb.

Perhaps, this jolt was needed for HAL, they started playing posessional game, and slowly came back to the game. 20 minutes into the game and HAL equalized. Minz gave a long pass to Xavier, who was moving dangerously from the left flank. The later was brought down by defender Sudeesh Muttiah. Fredrick Okwagbe timed his spot-jump in perfection from Xavier’s free-kick and scored the equalizer.    

The winning goal came from the 20-year old diminutive striker Satish Kumar Junior, who hails from the football nursery of Bangalore, Gowthampuram and has been a revelation for HAL. It was the old war horse Xavier Vijay Kumar again in action. From the left flank, he floated a cross to the far post for skipper, Rajendra Prasad. Prasad’s powerful header hit the cross-piece and rebounded into the ground, Satish Kumar Junior rightly came close to the ball and scored the winner.

Vasco pressed a lot but denied an equalizer, thanks to some tight defending by HAL.

The match was marred by some poor referring by Amjad Khan Mansoori. Just after the final whistle, Vasco players and officials barged into the field and attacked the referee. A timely intervention by the KSFA officials prevented from any untoward incident. The crowd came in a sizeable number of around 3000 today. One section of them reacted wildly and started pelting empty bottles and molded chairs to the Vasco players. The bizarre part was that the deployed police not seen in the scene.

Talking to GardenCitySoccerStars, Chitti Babu, the match commissioner sounded normal, “Nothing great as happened today, match got over, then few players and team officials charged referee. I don’t see any wrong in referee’s part as he completed the match. Security personnel’s were deployed there, however, I feel they were inadequate in numbers, I’ll mention this in my report.”

Post match comments:

Muralidharan, coach, HAL: Good win for us, we are inching closer to our target. Now the next match against ONGC is crucial for us, a win should give us license to play 1st division next season. We’ll play the same winning combination next match. Once we achieve our goal, then we can try out our bench strength.

Satish Kumar Junior, striker, HAL: I’m elated, good to see I’m coming good for my team. I’ve represented India in Under-17 national, captained Karnataka state in under-19, and also represented Karnataka in Santosh Trophy. I am not new in the striker position. Before joining HAL I was playing in this position. I had talks with a couple of top national-level clubs, but keen on playing for a top I-league team.

Result:

• Malabar United 1 (Javeed P A-17') beat NISA 0
• HAL 2 (Fredrick Okwagbe-20 and Satish Kr. Jr.-51') versus Vasco 1 (Sibra Narzary-2')

Next Match - May 16 (Round 5):

• Mohammedan Sporting Club versus Oil India, 2 pm
• Vasco Sports Club versus Malabar United, 4 pm

HAL trounce Oil men

In a skillful display of the game of football, HAL crushed Oil India, Dhuliajan 3-1 in their second round match of the I-League 2nd division. HAL was leading by a Xavier VijayKumar goal in the first-half. In the other match of the day, Malabar United defeated Sesa Football Academy 3-0.

HAL started the game with a proper plan to hold the speedy Oil men. Xavier played from the flank and Satish Kumar (jr.) started with Fredrick as a striking duo.
 
Match progressed in a lively pace with Oil India bagging the first corner in the 4th minute of the match. A minute later, it was HAL’s turn from the other side. However, Jotin’s head from the corner went wide.

HAL kept the possession of the ball in the opponent's end, playing short passes, and then going for the kill. They got their first chance as early as 13th minute, Nigerian Fredrick received the final pass from a nice move, however, Fredrick’s feeble shot went outside the goal post. Fredrick’s striking partner, Sathish Kumar (jr) couldn’t capitalize from a defensive lapse in the 19th minute.

Oil India got a chance by Ricky Joy’s rare clumsy clearance in the 21st minute. Stopper Femi Adeola had no other option, but to come down heavily on the Oil India striker. The free-kick from the top-corner of the penalty box yielded no result for Oil India.

Unlucky to say the least, Oil India could have taken the lead in the 29th minute, Jayanta Basumatary’s powerful right-footed long ranger hit the left post; keeper Amar Deb was no where close to the ball.

HAL picked up their 1st goal after a minute from a corner. Skipper Rajendra Prasad took the flag-kick, wily Xavier VijayKumar headed the ball that was beyond the reach of the keeper.

HAL put up a spirited performance after the goal, with the striker duo combining well, ably supported by the mid-field.

After changing ends, HAL came out in a more organized manner and the 2nd goal was just the result of that discipline - Sathish Kumar (jr) scored after dribbling past 2 defenders.

Oil India had their share of chances, they did well to get the ball to the opponent’s end, but then it was the regular story of losing the plot and missing easy chances. The lacked the finishing abilities and were often clueless inside the penalty box area.

Meanwhile, Xavier scored his second goal in the 71st minute. Substitute for Oil India Prashanta Choudhary pulled one the 87th minute. But by then it was all over for Oil India.

Xavier, who scored a brace, talked to us after the match, he was happy in team’s performance, however, he was not satisfied by his own performance in the role of the winger. He hopes to better it and ready the don the new role for his team.

2 wins from 2 matches and today’s result must satisfy HAL coach Muralidharan. HAL played a far better game today, they excelled in all departments! They have scored 3, and should have scored another 3 today.

Malabar thrash Sesa

In another match played earlier today, Kerala outfit, Malabar United won convincingly against the academy team from Sesa, Goa. All the 3 goals were scored in the second-half. 

The teams were at par in the first half, however, 2 quick goals in the early 2nd half dented the morale of the young Sesa guys, and then they failed to come back to the game.

Clifford Chukwama, who earlier coached I-league division 1 team Sporting Club de Goa, blamed experience (rather lack of it) for this result. “Two goals in quick succession did us in. Also, the penalty was not justified as my player made no body contact with the opponent player.” said Chukwama. Also added, “2 defeats from as many matches, had really made the task difficult for us”.

Result:

• Malabar United 3 (Loveday-53', Asif K-55 [penalty], and Firos K-70') Sesa Football Academy 0
• HAL 3 (30' and 71'-Xavier Vijaykumar, and Satish Kumar jnr.-53') Oil India 1 (Prasanta-87')

Next Match - May 5 (Round 2):

• Vasco Sports Club versus ONGC, 2 pm
• NISA, Manipur versus Mohammedan Sporting Club, 4 pm

Jotin’s strike helps HAL to start on a winning note

City giant HAL survived several scares but held firm and finally ended on a winning note against Malabar United in the opening day of the I-League 2nd division final round. In the first match of the day, Vasco, Goa defeated their state team Sesa Football Academy 2-1.

It was HAL minus their three ever dependable players playing today - strikers Frederick Okwagbe and Xavier Vijaykumar out due to two yellow cards and Bimal Minz out due to a marching order the last match. Cards from the qualifying round were carried over to the final round, alright!

The match started on a breezy note with Malabar earning a corner in the first minute of the match. Few minutes later it was HAL taking corner from the other end. However, none of the team could score a goal. HAL who looked weak on paper was on an attacking spree during that time. Mid-fielder Murali twice failed to connect header in 7th and 11th minute. Also, Sathish Kumar’s (senior) long ranger in 16th and 21st minute failed to create any opening for HAL. Meanwhile Sathish Kumar (junior) made some nice moves from the middle.

When everyone thought that the match would go goalless during the lemon-break, Jotin Singh did the trick much to the delight of the crowd. Ricky Joy floated a nifty cross to the box from the right flank, Jotin did the rest with an accurate header.

HAL had the lady luck smiling on them, surely! In the second half, Malabar United skipper Jacken Sebastian came close to scoring several times, however, their effort was thwarted most of the time by the woodwork.

HAL’s defense looked tad short in communication and Malabar started putting pressure. A complete hara-kiri by the HAL defense almost earned the equalizer for Malabar in the 68th minute. Femi’s feeble header was taken by Javed, meanwhile keeper Deb left the goal and missed the flight, the goal was wide open, however, the ball hit the far post, and was inching towards the goal, finally Jai Kumar cleared ball from the goal-line.

Sitting out for the maximum time, foreigner Loveday was brought in at the dying minutes of the game, however, he too could not change the course of the match.

Result:

• Vasco 2 (Biju Kumar-75', Joy Ferdao-86') beat Sesa Football Academy 1 (Lesly Fernandes-40')
• HAL 1 (Jotin Singh-45+1’) beat Malabar United 0

Saturdays match:

• Mohammedan Sporting Club versus ONGC, 2 pm
• NISA, Manipur versus Oil India, 4 pm

BEML wallops Chandni, brighten their chances to qualify for final round

BEML tore apart Chandni FC’s defense and pumped 6 goals in the first match of the day 9 of I-League 2nd Division Group A qualifiers. In another match played today, Malabar United beat Golden Threads 2-1.

It was one of those days when every thing went in favor for BEML and they shone in every department – their midfield led by Mahendra Mani totally controlled the game and provided accurate long passes, both the flanks moved up and down, defense was compact, and most importantly, their foreign striker Hamza regained his form, and scored a hat-trick for his team.

In the 8th minute of the game Hamza scored the first goal from a header, Don Bosco’s corner kick was spot on, and Hamza made no mistake.

In a very similar fashion BEML got their second goal in 21st minute, Ticken Singh took a shot from the left corner, Hamza timed his jump to perfection, and headed the ball to Chandni’s goal.

Hamza missed a couple of chances to increase his tally in 34th minute. RC Prakash centered the ball to and he took a quick shot at the goal, an alert Chandni goalkeeper saved a sure goal. A minute later RC made a similar move, but Hamza failed to reach to the ball.

The 3rd goal came in the 44th minute, when hard working right-winger Don Bosco passed the ball and RC Prakash, and the former national player placed the ball the far side post.

After exchanging ends, Chandni FC made some quick attacks, however, BEML defense lead by Shamaki and Ramesh thwarted all the attacks. Ramesh in particular had a great day on the field and seldom had he made mistakes.

 In 54th minute, RC was brought down by keeper Naseeb inside the penalty box, Hamza took the kick and completed his hat-trick.

Chandni gave up the game and started playing meaningless football, until striker Javed OK came very close to reduce the margin, but missed an open net. Last match hero for Chandni, Javed was totally off-color today.

Don Bosco’s replacement, young Sharath scored the 5th goal in 89th minute, when he ran a solo from the half-line, dribbled past few defenders, and finally pushed the ball to the goal.

In the 3-minute injury time, Chandni reduced the margin, however, the goal was canceled due to off-side.

A minute later, Mahendra Mani scored the final goal from a free-kick. The keeper was not in a position as the ball went past him.

Result:

• BEML 6 (Hamza-8', 20', and 54' [penalty], R C Prakash-44', Sarath-89', and Mahendra Mani-90+3') beat Chandni F.C 0
• Malabar United (Asif K-70' and Jacken Sebastian-88') 2 beat Golden Threads 1 (Sanjay Vennara-64')

Fridays Match:
 

SBT versus Titanium, 4 pm

HAL squander points again

City’s numero uno team, HAL failed yet again to register full points in the ongoing I-League 2nd Division group A qualifiers against Malabar United at the Bangalore Football Stadium. This is their 3rd consecutive draw in 4 games. In another match, SBT registered their maiden victory over Chandni FC 1-0.

What would have termed as an opportunity to garner full points ended in a tame 1-1 draw and one wonders how HAL was at the receiving end in most of the time.

HAL lacked that extra urge to go for the kill thru the entire game. It was Malabar who went on attacking at the beginning of the game. After raiding HAL’s defense for couple of time, Malabar United opened their account in the 15th minute – overseas player Loveday put a brilliant cross for Sebastian, who fooled the HAL defense, and only had the marching keeper Amar Deb in front. He dribbled past the keeper and shot the ball to the goal.

After conceding the goal, HAL came back to the game and forced couple of corners in quick succession. Fredrick’s goal was cancelled by the referee after he committed foul on Malabar’s keeper.

It was Fredrick Okwagbe again in the 32nd minute followed the ball from a corner in a packed Malabar defense and scored the equalizer.

If it was bad luck and complacency that deprived HAL from winning in their last 2 games, today, it was a poor show in general – the passes were inaccurate in most of the time, midfield lacked coordination with defense, and both the flanks operated slowly. Surely, they missed the service of their midfielder Murali, who was out of the match due to injury.

Malabar missed to score from close range couple of times in the second half. In the 50th minute, Loveday stretched the ball from the half, defeated a defender by pace, and floated the ball for Prasoon, who only failed get past the keeper.

A minute later Prasoon failed to score yet again, and this time goal keeper was not in his position.

HAL too missed easy chances and failed to take lead. Patrick Okwagbe was the culprit in 65th minute, he took too long to shoot the ball to the goal, and finally blocked by the opponents defender.

HAL played aimless football for the later part and many times they were playing the catching game.

HAL needs to win their next game against Golden Threads on Sunday, April 11 to be on a safe zone.

Result:

• HAL 1 (Fredrick Okwagbe 32') versus Malabar United 1 (Jacken Sebastian 15')
• SBT 1 (Mohammad Aslam-74') beat Chandni F.C 0

Tuesday’s match:

Titanium versus Golden Threads, 4pm

BEML waste points, Malabar bag full points

City team BEML could not hold their lead, squandered many chances, and ended in a 2-2 draw against Golden Threads. In the other match of day, Malabar United came back from a one-goal deficit, and defeated Titanium 2-1.

The earth movers took lead in the 4th minute of the match. Striker Hamza broke the sleepy Golden Threads defense and passed the ball his partner RC Prakash. RC made no mistake in placing the ball to the side net from a close range.

Few minutes later, left-out Tiken Singh snatched the ball from a Threads defender and took a powerful shot at the goal, unfortunately the ball hit the left post.

Golden Threads made some quick attacks after conceding the goal and challenged BEML’s defense. BEML defense lacked coordination and looked shaky. This was the time Golden Threads came back to the game. Sanjay Vennara took a stunning header from Abhijit K’s cross from the right flank and scored the equalizer.

Second-half started in a lackluster fashion with ball traveling from one end to another end rather hopelessly. In 56th minute, Don Bosco’s innocuous-looking shot from the top of the penalty box found the second goal for the earth movers.

It was wily Sanjay Vennara again who leveled the score in the 74th minute of the match.

Later in the secone half, BEML strikers failed to score from few easy chances, and denied full points to the team.

With a draw and a loss, BEML’s chance to qualify for the final round looks bleak Golden Threads seats pretty at the top of the points table with 4 points from 2 games.

Result:

• Malabar United 2 (Shamjith-60' and Loveday-84') Vs Titanium 1 (Prasanth Simon-42')
• BEML 2 (RC Prakash 4' and Don Bosco 56') Vs Golden Threads 2 (Sanjay Vennara-14' and 74')

Wednesdays match:

• HAL versus Chandni FC, 4.15 pm

Golden Threads upsets SBT

New entrant to the I-League 2nd Division, Golden Threads (from Ernakulam) started their journey in an exciting fashion after defeating SBT 2-1. In the other match, Malabar United, Kochi drew with Chandni F.C, Calicut 1-1.

What was anticipated by the Golden Threads management came true! Today morning while talking to GardenCity Soccer Stars, they predicted that the unknown factor and playing as an underdog would help in their way. That was exactly displayed in the match today.

SBT took the lead in the in the 17th minute of the match. However, their joy was short-lived, foreign recruit Onome leveled the score through a penalty in the 33rd minute.

Second-half started in a positive note for Golden Threads, they were dominating the game. The second goal came from some individual skills from Onome and equally bad defense from SBT. Onome toyed with 4 defenders and passed the ball to unmanned Sanjay Vannara, who kept his head cool and pushed the ball to the left side of the keeper.

Unfortunately in the 60th minute, SBT scorer Rakesh was shown marching order (after 2 yellow cards) and SBT had to play with 10 men for the rest of the match. However, the blow didn’t dampen the spirits of the bankmen, they looked up for scoring opportunities. Twice they came close to scoring; the long ranger shot closely missed the goalpost in few occasions.

SBT has task cut out to qualify for the final round. The former I-League 1st Division team is missing few key players from injury, etc, which would make their cause difficult.

Results:

• Golden Threads 2 (Onome-33' [(Penalty] and Sanjay Vannara-54') beat SBT 1 (Rakesh 7-17')
• Malabar United 1 (Jitesh CK-77' [(Penalty]) Chandni F.C 1 (Zubair KP 78)

Tomorrows match:

• HAL versus BEML, 4.15 pm

All-Kerala Team Meets in Bangalore

Inaugural day of the I-League 2nd Division Group A qualifiers will witness as many as 4 Kerala vying against each other. 

New entrant to the I-League 2nd division, Golden Threads plays the first match against traditional football powerhouse from Kerala, SBT. In the other match of the day, Chandni FC clashes with Malabar United.


SBT coach and former India international player VP Shaji sounded confident about faring well in this tournament. Shaji has been a seasoned campaigner for SBT during his football days, played SBT for 9 seasons and now he is back as a coach.

Earlier SBT made to the I-league Division 1 for few seasons, however, their stay at the top division had been irregular. Last time they played at the top division was on 2004-05 season.

Though both teams SBT and Golden Threads come from the same state, but they haven’t met before. With 7 state players in their side, SBT is ready to take the challenge of Golden Threads.

Coached by veteran Najeeb, Malabar United plays the next match against Chandni FC. Najeeb is just 4-months old in the office. He feels that his team is not bad, he has 2 foreigners from Nigeria in the defense and striker position, and confident enough to fair well in this tournament.
  

Matches on Saturday, March 27

Golden Threads versus SBT, 2.15 pm
Chandni F.C versus Malabar United, 4.15 pm