Los Galacticos thrashes United FC in 3rd division while Indian Culture League (A) toppled Veniza Virar from the top in 1st division

by Spandan Paul February 7, 2018

6th February,2018- Four MDFA(Mumbai District Football Association) matches took place here, in St. Xaviers Ground,Parel. While in third division play-offs’ Los Galacticos came from behind to thrash United FC, Indian Ex-Service Man salvaged a draw against RCF Boys. In 1st division clashes Indian Culture League  (A) toppled Veniza Virar FC from the top with a 1-0 victory whereas PIFA Colaba registerd their second win of the league with a similar scoreline over Dias United SC.

3rd Division Play-off Group D–

Los Galacticos (Tyran 31′,Nobert 39′.Siddhanth 50′) 3-1 United Football Club(Faisal 30′)

In the final match of the day,  Los Galacticos faced off United Football Club in the floodlit St.Xaviers ground. While United Football FC were already out of the contention for qualification, Los Galacticos required a victory to avoid any sort of dependencies on other results.

First ten minutes of the match saw plethora of attempts by Los Galacticos into their opponent’s half while United Football Club managed to keep Galacticos strikers at bay, with ocassional counter attacks. Remaining time of the  half went by; both the teams trying to break down each other’s defence; but in vain. The best chance of this half for Galacticos came, when Nigel Vaz had a thunderous run from the middle and laid down an exquisite pass to his right for his teammate who couldn’t control the ball due to a well timed tackle by onrushing defenders, but  Nobert Fernandes of Galacticos saw to it that the possession is not lost and kept it within the goalline. But he took too long to flick it as goalie got the time to inflict the save and keep the scoreline 0-0 at the break.

Second half was intriguing from the word go as United FC raised the heat with Kashif Baghdadi bringing out few tricks of his own when he did a rainbow flick from the right touchline, getting past two defenders, obtaining a corner in the process. He took a beautiful curling corner which found Sami’s head perfectly, but Sami’s weak header bamboozled high towards right as the ever alert Faisal Khan who headed it home to put United FC ahead by one goal at 30th minute.

But Galacticos responded in fashion just a minute later when a beautiful assist by Siddhant who was distributing the ball well was converted into the equalizer by Tyran Fernandes as he blasted into right corner hitting the inside of the post and rolling into the net. United FC tried to rally back with Kashif and Saddam providing brilliant crosses to their forward but stubborn resilience from Kunal and Tyson denied them every single time.

As the clock ticked past 38 mins, Russell Pereira provided a brilliant ball for Nobert Fernandez who completed a classic one-on-one finish to earn Los Galacticos the lead as they were now in complete control of the match . Cherry to the topping was added by the ever-agile Siddhanth Suvarna who made it 3-1 at the fag end of the match getting a nice pass from Seifer Mascarenhas and taking a brilliant run through middle beating the defense line and producing a deft, strong flick to beat the helpless custodian. It was a comprehensive victory at the end for Los Galacticos who finished on a high after topping the chart in their group with 7 points from 3 matches.

3rd  Division, group G – RCF Colony Boys  0-0 Indian Ex-service Man

In another 3rd division match of group G, RCF Colony Boys and Indian Ex-service Man played out a barren draw .RCF needed a 3-0 victory to have any chance of qualifying whatsoever ;but that was not to be as they finished their campaign of this season with a loss and two draws in 3rd position behind Indian Ex-service man who has 5 points from as many matches.

1st Division ,Group E- Indian Culture League (A) (Hrishikesh 48′)  1-0  Veniza Virar FC

In the battle for supremacy of group E ,1st division Indian Culture League  (A)peeped Veniza Virar FC  1-0 ,owing to a second half goal from Hrishikesh Nirulkar in the 48th minute. Indian Culture League (A) in this way accounted for the first loss of the season for Veniza Virar FC who had a dream run of 5 consecutive victories till now. Indian Culture League now topples VVFC from the top courtesy better goal difference after being tied on 15 points with them from 6 matches.

1st Division,Group D- PIFA Colaba U-17(Kartik 30′)  1-0 (BBC) Dias United SC

In the first division group D clash, mid table PIFA Colaba squeezed past Dias United courtesy strike from Kartik Chavan in the 30th minute ,which made the only difference between the sides.  PIFA Colaba registered their second win of the season in this process, while Dias United SC are still on their hunt for the maiden victory after 5 league matches till now.