KSA U-17 prevails in a shoot-out thriller to cruise into Quarter Final

by Spandan Paul February 12, 2018

10^th February, 2018 – In the day’s one and only match KSA  U-17 sneaked past Anushakti Nagar S.A in a thriller ,here ,at St. Xaviers Ground,Parel. It was an all-important clash of 3^rd division MDFA play-off pre-quarter final in which K.S.A prevailed in the penalty shoot-out after a stunning comeback.

 3^rd Division Play-off (K/O) stage :-

K.S.A U-17 (Aaron 48’, Vimesh 50’[P]) 2-2(FT) [4-3 in Shoot-out]  Anushakti Nagar (Prashant 43’ Akshay 46’)

It was the occasion for day’s only match of 3^rd division pre-quarter final, between KSA U-17 and Anushakti Nagar. While Anushakti Nagar topped in play-off league stage in G group, KSA U-17 qualified from group C. It promised excitement in the first half of the match itself, which ended with scoreline being 0-0. The second half saw a brilliant story of resurgence by KSA U-17; staying true to their nature of comebacks after being down by couple of goals by Anushakti Nagar.

Early in the second half Anushakti Nagar turned up the heat to earn the lead through Prashant Ghughatyal , who hit a hit-trick in their last win over Adarsh FC in play off league; courtesy an assist by Viswajeet Sahoo. Within a couple of minutes Anushakti Nagar doubled their lead owing to a Akshay Nair strike in the 46^th minute.

Up 2-0 with almost 50 minutes on the board it should have been a cakewalk for Anushakti Nagar from thereon. But KSA colts had other ideas as they rallied from behind immediately after the second goal. Soon the 3^rd goal of the match came in the form of Aaron Machado strike, the first for KSA U-17 in the match, at 48 minute.

Displaying tremendous grit and determination KSA U-17 got the equaliser as soon as  the clock stroke 50^th minute when Anushakti Nagar gifted their stubborn opponent an equalizing penalty kick for a foul in the box. Vimesh Salian made no mistake to put the ball into the back of the net. Both the teams tried to earn the winner until the play rolled on to penalty shoot-out for the decisive scoreline.

It was a heart-break for Anushakti Nagar in the shoot-out, who put up a consistent dominant display through-out the campaign. They missed three chances from the spo;t with the first one being saved by the KSA custodian while wasting other two by hitting wayward or on woodwork with the last one coming in the sudden death.

While 3 spot-kick conversion for Anushakti came from Prem Shinde, Vaisbhav Vaskar and Yogesh Palekar, KSA converted 4 courtesy Avinash Bangera, Nagesh Yadav, the goalscorer Vimesh Salian and Bilal Shaikh. As the final spotkick from KSA U-17 curled past the goalline, the scoreline read 4-3 in penalties in favour of KSA U-17 after sudden death. It was a thrilling victory for KSA U-17 who will now go on to face the winner of The Soccer Academy and Khiladi Connect in the quarter final.