Sarvodaya Vidyalaya Khanapur and Islamiya High School sailed smoothly into the Finals of the Memorial Cup 2016 of the Royceton Gomes Memorial Football Tournament.
The first semi-finals match on 5th August at 3:00 PM was played between Sarvodaya Vidyalaya Khanapur and Phoenix Public School. Sarvodaya began the match well by keeping the ball in the opponent’s half for the first quarter of the first half and taking shots good shots at the goal but without any success. The next quarter of the first half, Phoenix Public kept possession of the ball and they too had quite a number of powerful shots at the goal but Sarvodaya’s goal-keeper brilliantly saved a number of goals. No goals were scored in the first half. In the second half, the game picked up pace and both sides had equal chances to score. But in the 37th minute Alfred Pereira got a golden chance and drove the ball into the nets to open the score for Sarvodaya. Phoenix tried hard to equalize but in the very last minute of the match, Stephen Souz scored a goal in the 60th minute. Sarvodaya won the first semi-final 2 – 0.
The second semi-finals match at 4:30 PM was played between Marathi Vidyaniketan and Islamiya High School. It turned out to be a super exciting match. Both teams kept up pace and played a fast moving game. Both teams played brilliantly and took good shots at the goal. MVNiketan got the first opportunity to score when Tejraj Jadhav opened the score early in the 3rd minute. Islamiya did not waste any time and Owes Jamadar immediately equalized the score in the 4th minute. At the end of the first half, the score was 1 – 1. In the second half, the match became even more exciting and interesting with lots of cheering and support from the side-lines. Even though both teams tried hard to score, no goals were scored in the second half. The match went into extra time, and even in extra time no goals were scored. In the penalty shoot-out that followed, amidst huge crowds and deafening cheering, Islamiya scored 8 goals to 7 to advance into the Finals.
The Finals match between Sarvodaya Vidyalaya Khanapur and Islamiya High School will be played on Sunday, 7th August at 3:00 PM.