Mumbai football’s Golden Boot race between teammates

by Chittu Shetty May 22, 2022

The Dynamic duo of Arif Shaikh and Alister Anthony in the Ambernath Utd – Atlanta FC attack have taken the MFA Elite league by storm. Both players are now in an intense race for the MFA Golden Boot award.

In their maiden season in MFA Elite League, Ambernath United – Atlanta FC have taken the league by storm with a rampaging run of wins.

Ambernath United – Atlanta FC have looked a class apart this season, whether it be in defense, midfield or attack. The club has been so dominating this season that they have scored five or more goals in a single game more than eight times. The strike force led by inform Alister and Arif has hammered 69 goals so far. In defense, the club has been so strong that hardly any club managed to have a sniff at their goal, so far they have conceded just four goals with a goal difference of 65. Meanwhile, Aaron Dcosta and Allen Dias have been the midfield magicians peppering the forward line with constant opportunities, notching up 15 and 10 Assists respectively.

Golden Boot Race

The Steven Dias managed side has won every game so far pumping in 69 goals in the process. It should be no wonder to anyone that their forward lineup is leading the League’s goal-scoring charts. Both Alister Anthony and Arif Shaikh have been in magnificent form in front of goals, notching up 19 and 17 goals respectively.

While the two top scorers in the team have scored the bulk number of goals for the club, AUA FC has not been too reliant on them, the club has still managed to find 13 other goal scorers this season, who have notched a total of 30 goals between themselves in the 13 games they played.

The start of the season saw Alister Anthony cleaning through opposition defense and was in a league of his own. The 22 year old striker register four successive hat-tricks to take his tally to 14 goals by game 5 of the season. Although starting out majorly as an attacking midfielder, Alister’s dribbling ability along with his control over the ball was quite evident. With the freedom to move forward in attack, Alister’s quality came to the fore and he started notching one goal after another.

As opposition clubs learned about his ability, Alister started getting marked down which eventually curbed his goal-scoring exploits. Alister dealt with this challenge by dragging defenders away to make space for his strike partner to take charge. Alister has so far stuck 19 goals along with 3 assists and leads the golden boot race with three games still to go.

Meanwhile, his strike partner – Arif Shaikh is the perfect example of a poacher in the attack. As Alister’s early blitz slowed down, Arif rose to the occasion with his goal poaching ability. Arif’s experience in I Leagues with Gokulam Kerala has boded well for the Ambernath United-Atlanta in this campaign. The 28-year-old would always manage to position himself in the right spot to unleash the final finish. The Mumbai-born center forward is just behind Alister in the race, having managed to notch up 17 goals himself along with 5 assists for his teammates.

Head Coach Steven Dias is quite pleased with his strikers “It’s good to see both my players are in the race for Golden Boot. But more importantly, I am glad they acknowledge the efforts of the whole team. I also have never seen them playing selfishly to score goals instead they have complimented each other very well.” Dias further shared his thought on the Golden Boot race, “For me, it doesn’t matter who scores more goals and wins Golden Boot. For me, both are extremely talented and are helping the team to win each and every match. I wish both of them. And I personally want both of them to share Golden Boot.“

With both players, neck to neck in the golden boot race, it will be interesting to see who takes to the final honours

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