O’Sheish FC sets up championship clash with Future Stars FC

by Spandan Paul February 27, 2018

25^th Feb’18 – On an eventful day here at Parel,St Xaviers ground O’Sheish FC set up a clash with Future Stars FC  for the final of MFL Division II while Sagar Sports Club go to the top of the standings. Here’s a short recap:

3^rd Division S/F – O’Sheish  FC (0-0 FT) won 6-5 [in Tie-breaker] vs  KSA

It was a humdinger at St. Xaviers when two heavyweight oppositions, O’Sheish FC and KSA locked their horns for a place in the final.  It was an evenly contested match where O’Sheish looked dominating in the second half, but neither of the sides could trigger the scoreline as it went into a dramatic tie-breaker to decide the fate of the second semi final of MFL-Division III.

Both the teams started on a positive note with Shervin Sooren and Avinash Bangera leading the charge through the middle of the pitch for O’sheish and KSA respectively. Both the team created chances but were undone in the final third.

Second half was lit up courtesy a fiery performance by OSheish. They came very close to open the floodgates when a corner taken by Shervin found Aftab clear at the far post, who came up from defense, but his header missed the target by a whisker. Minutes later Shawn Gomes, the KSA keeper who had a brilliant day under the crossbar, made a fine save to a Zahan Damani scorcher aimed at the top of the crossbar.

Meanwhile KSA lost out to the organised passing of O’Sheish as they looked wayward with a tad too less coordination in the midfield. Chances came once in a blue moon for them, the best being beautiful through by Avinash to Shubham Shukla who took a breezy run through the right flank and delivered a minus, which fell behind of the onrushing substitute Nitin.

O’Sheish had the best chance of the game to seal the match couple of seconds before the final whistle when Rahul Damani provided a through, meant for Danesh, bisecting the defense. Faizan staying true to his pacy nature reached the ball first but couldn’t beat Shawn, who charged infront and made sure it’s a clean sheet after the stipulated time.

It was a dramatic shootout where both the teams missed their mark more than once, as the result had to be obtained in sudden death. Shervin Sooren donned the keeping gloves for O’Sheish which raised quite a few eyebrows in the stands. It somehow might have affected the concentration Aaron Machado , who skied the 2^nd penalty high above in order to find the top corner; in the process continuing his woeful form with the spotkicks.

It seemed all over for KSA when Shervin moved to his right to save Avinash’s attempt which was the third from them, but Shawn had other ideas as he pulled off two consecutive stunning saves for KSA. First Zainuddin hit straight in the lap of Shawn who then dived to his right to deny Amit’s  and KSA’s 4^th attempt.

But it wasn’t Shawn’s day as the eight attempt by the no. 8 of KSA Nikhil went straight into the hands of Shervin who moved to his left guessing correctly,even before the shot was taken. In desperation, Avinash replaced Shawn as the goalie in O’Sheish’s 8^th attempt but couldn’t stop a pitch-perfect spot-kick conversion from Jadish as O’Sheish erupted in joy of storming into the final.

It remains to see whether O’Sheish can create a record of winning the league title being unbeaten in 14 consecutive competitive fixture as they now celebrate their 13^th victory on the trot.

3^rd Division S/F – Future Stars FC (0-0 FT) won 3-2 [in Tie-breaker] vs  Judean United SC

In the first semi-final, Future Stars prevailed in the shootout after being unable to break down the defense of Judean United SC. Both the teams fought tooth and nail until the final whistle as this match went down to the wire as expected. Vipul  Khetale,Rudolf D’Souza and Rohit Kadam converted the spotkicks for Future Stars while only Kevin Alvares and Jeshan Lochoor managed to find the back of the net for Judean United SC as they failed to convert the other 3 chances from the spot.

It will be a cracker of a match when Future Stars meet O’Sheish FC in the clash for championship couple of days later.

2^nd Division, Group E – Marouli United FC ( Russell[2], Troy) 3-2 Poinsur Gymkhana (Rinaldo, Vaibhav)

In a group E fixture of MFL Division, II Marouli United rode on a brace by Russell D’Souza to hand Poinsur Gymkhana their 8^th consecutive defeat. Vaibhav and the substitute Rinaldo scored for the Poinsur side while Troy Nunes added to Marouli’s goal tally as Poinsur Gymkhana had to round up this campaign without a single victory.

2^nd Division,Group A – Sagar Sports Club ( Allwyn 67’, Praful 64’) 2-0 Samuel Football Academy

Sagar Sports Club produced a spirited performance in the second half to overcome a gritty, bottom-placed Samuel FA in a 2^nd division group A clash. It was a 3 minute blitz for SSC in which Praful Mangela opened the scoring in the 64^th minute before Allwyn Madurai doubled the lead to inflict third loss for Samuel FA in 6 matches. Sagar SC after this win surpassed Das FA and opened up a 2 point lead at the top of the table with 16 points in 8 matches.

2^nd Division, Group C –  Mumbai Rush Soccer Club 0-0 We Care FC

In another 2^nd division match Mumbai Rush and We Care FC played out a goalless stalemate, a result which inflicts no change in the standings in group C.