Reserve Bank of India hosted Century Rayon in the first semi-final of this year’s Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA) Division 1 at St. Xavier’s ground, Parel on Thursday afternoon, 17th March, 2016.

Throughout the 90 minutes of football Century Rayon played they had control on the flow of the match, but a lackluster performance in-terms-of passing, decision-making and coming out on-top during one-versus-one situations in the final-third of the pitch cost them a place in the final.

A foul inside the 18-yard-box by Century Rayon’s Manish Mandloi, resulted in a penalty to R.B.I., which Abhishek Ambekar slotted past the trailing Century Rayon goalkeeper in the 40th minute.

Throughout the first-45 minutes of the match, Century Rayon played the role as a dominant side amongst the two teams, but fell-short on a majority of occasions to provide a structure to their attacking play around the opposition’s box.

The timing of the goal by R.B.I. proved to be a bigger blow for Century Rayon than the goal itself as the latter were favorites to progress going into the second-half of the proceedings if Century Rayon had not conceded the penalty.

By the time, Century Rayon gathered itself up, the first-45 minutes had come to a closure. Although, the Rayon’s started the second-half as brightly as the first-half, but having come agonizingly close to scoring an equalizer themselves as they left huge holes to be exploited by R.B.I. on the counter-attack, the former stumbled for the second-time in the 84th minute of the match to let slip-in a decisive second-goal for Reserve Bank of India.

The second goal as a result of a poor first-time clearance from a cross inside the box, which fell to Hriday Sethi inside the box, who half-volleyed the ball into the net to give his side much-needed breathing space as they patiently waited for their opportunities in the tussle, making the most of it, in the process.

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Mumbai F.C. started to pressurize I.C. United from an attacking front; creating a handful of early half-chances to hold I.C. United on the back-foot, as the latter fancied hitting – a high-positioned three-man back-line – on the counterattack.

I.C. United constantly appeared to have found gaps in the Mumbai F.C. back-three, but failed to exploit them from open play, largely because the player in support found himself stationed in an offside position or a player in possession of the ball failed to win a one versus one situation.

While Mumbai F.C. dumped unsuccessful long-balls into their two front-men after quickly circulating the ball in the midfield area, I.C. United received a number of free-kicks in and around the final-third area due to the inability of the M.F.C. back-three, who failed to effectively defend in a three against two defensive situation, largely due to the fact that they had negligible amount of defensive support from their wing-backs.

For a large proportion of the first-half, I.C. United’s back-line struggled to cope with the quick attacking pair of Mumbai F.C. strikers, but they stood compact and resolute whilst M.F.C.’s long-ball approach.

Around the 28th minute, Mumbai F.C. created a good opportunity from down the right-side, but Kishan Dubey could only see his shot through straight into the goalkeeper’s gloves. Both sides were lacking creativity in the attacking area of the pitch as they man-marked each other in midfield; while creating opportunities down the flanks and through dead-ball situations.

As the half came to a closure, both sides were locked at 0-0 with neither side able to take full advantage of the number of opportunities, which fell at their disposal.

The second-half started-off in similar fashion as like the first-35 minutes of the game. And with the 2nd-half through its 1st quarter, Mumbai F.C., who saw more of the ball as the half progressed – continued to disappoint with their long-ball approach, which lost its effectiveness as the game progressed.

The game reached its boiling-point, when both sides came agonizingly close to scoring the opening goal, first, when I.C. United missed-out on an one-on-one chance and, later, when Mumbai F.C.’s fluffed a potential header opportunity.

With both sides still at 0-0 by the end of normal-time, the match headed into a penalty shootout, which I.C. United comfortably won 3-1. Rakesh Karmaran failed to convert from the spot, which gave I.C. United an edge in the shootout, initially. With both sides converting their second penalty, neither team converted their 3rd and decisive penalty. Abhishek Patil missed the 4th penalty for M.F.C. while I.C. United converted theirs, leaving M.F.C. out of the second division winner’s spot chase as I.C. United somehow carved their way into the finals of this year’s tournament.

Note: Mumbai F.C. has been promoted to the 1st Division of Mumbai District Football Association, but have lost-out on a chance to promote into division 1 as winners.

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Result of other played matches

2nd Division
Jet Airways F.C. VS. Bad Boys F.C. [0-0]

1st Division
Bomby F.C. Vs. Juhu Beach [1-2]

1st Division
H.D.F.C VS P.R.S Bacon [3-0]

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Lawrence Dias is unstoppable; in the previous match he had scored 4 goals and done fabulous job for his team Jolly Boys throughout the entire league. He is ordinary local boy from Sahar village but not an ordinary striker on the field, he has the remarkable sense of playing football, he is not only the performer but also the achiever has all the achievement except the India color. Under-19, Under-20, Under-21, under-23 National, Mumbai district, Santosh Trophy, all certificates are in his locker.  A hero for his Village, teammates calls him “BABA” as his pet name. He works in Dubai and he is on leave, in Dubai he was declared the player of the tournament for his brilliant display of football in the

tournament call “Friday The 13 Premier Cup”.

After Thursday’s win Jolly Boys Sahar has qualified for the semi-final and probables to qualify for MDFA league 2nd division too, MDFA will take the final call on it that how many team they will pick, indication was earlier to pick all 8 quarter finalist team but not confirmed yet.  This team is formed few years back, all the senior players have taken the initiative and carrying the team with local players. It is just the beginning, they have to go very far, wish them good luck for their future.

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Mumbai customs played an outstanding come back in the second half, they overcome from a goal deficit scored by Hekmat singh in the 64^th minute, when Sagar Bedekar wrongly brought down by Vivek singh kaira awarded a free kick to custom, Praneel Mendon’s power full shot got fumbled through goalkeeper Razak devsur’s hand landed into Hekmat Singh’s feet and then the joy of happiness among the entire crew.

Each half dedicated to Air India, Mumbai custom respectively. Air india took control over the game at the beginning only. N D Opara foreign recruit is tough to handle for Mumbai custom’s defenders, he keeps trying very frequently and made custom goal keeper Lihaz Koya busy in the box. Foreign recruit Emanuel Aja scored through a beautiful header, Monish Bhamre pull down Air India’s Jonychand sign awarded a free kick to Yogesh Rawat to curl the ball for Emanuel’s to test his heading skill.

Both the team were on their toes to get more numbers on the scoreboard but couldn’t make more than one and match ended with 1-1 and the result would be decided into a tie breaker. For Air India Emanuel Aja, Bhusan tumbe, N D Opara scored where as for Mumbai custom Kevin Patric was the lone scorer. Air Inida’s Allan Dias missed the target; his shot was easy save for Lihaz Koya. Mumbai custom had bad luck as their first two attempts got saved, Sajjad Alam and substitute Zinto zose and later Ashirwad hegde joined the club. The Match had a nice pace and got some hard and rough tackles, Referee Gadhe had nice control over the game, he booked two Air India players; Yogesh Rawat, Sidharth Nayak and Mumbai  custom’s Hekmat singh for yellow cards.

Other played matches – Pre quarter final

RCF & GM S.C

RCF won by 2 goals to NIL   2 – 0
Scorers for RCF Ajoy Kumar Singh scored the 1st goal by neatly tapping the ball with a fine placement to the right of the Goal keeper in the 40th minute & 2nd goal was scored in the 70th minute by Piyokumar with a neat placement to the far corner of the net.

AIR INDIA V/S Union Bank.

AIR INDIA won the match 2 – 1.
AIR INDIA Opened the account through Jonychand Singh in the 51st minute and the 2nd goal was scored by N.D. Opara in the 79th minute during the run of play which ultimately turned out to be the match winner. Aaron D’cost reduced the margin by scoring the lone goal for Union Bank.

M.S. POLICE v/s KENKRE FC

M.S.POLICE WON 3 – 1
Abdul Jaffar scored 2 goals and 1 Goal scored by Mohsin Mohammed.
For Kenkre the lone scorer was Yash Mhatre.

ONGC    v/s   COMPANEROES

ONGC 3 COMPANEROES NIL
Kailash Patil scored 2 goals in 4 minutes midway in the second half &
3rd Goal for ONGC came through Sathish.

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