Sports

ACC B and Sporting United SIFF-Eastea champions

March 21, 2018

K.O. Paulson

Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH
— The three-month-long Indian expatriates soccer festival, organized by Saudi Indian Football Forum (SIFF) at the Ministry of Education Stadium here, came to a glorious end with India film actor Unni Mukundan of Kerala joining the finale and making it a memorable night last Friday.

The soccer-mad and entertainment-hungry expatriates celebrated on an eventful evening as the handsome Kerala heartthrob and fitness freak Unni Mukundan entered the stadium, accompanied by officials. The vociferous crowd accorded a warm welcome to the Malayalam movie star as he walked around the stadium acknowledging the loud cheers of the entertaining soccer fans.

The finale became a productive night for Sporting United boys who clinched a hat trick of titles by blanking Soccer Freakz 3-0 in D Division final.

In a marathon A Division final, which spilled into a penalty shootout after a barren regulation time, a ten-man ACC B stunned favorite Sharafiya Trading Zabeen FC 4-3 to crown itself champion of the 18th SIFF-Eastea Champions League Football Tournament.

Missing chance after chance, Zabeen FC continued in a prodigal fashion throughout and nosedived into defeat, succumbing to a “hypnotizing” goalkeeper Abdul Salam in the penalty shootout.

Whereas a cautious ACC guarded its citadel diligently and emerged winner, adding one more feather to its illustrious record. The ACC teams have already stamped their class in the 18-year history of the tournament.

It has entered the finals 8 times in A Division and has emerged champion 5 times. It has also ruled the B Division playing in 5 finals and bagging the trophy thrice. A remarkable achievement indeed!

The annual soccer fiesta was mainly sponsored by Eastea. The co-sponsors were Jeddah National Hospital, Al-Abeer Group, Al-Harbi Sweets, Sharafiya Trading, Al-Rayan Hospital, Double Horse, RKG, New Gulail Polyclinic, Victory, Hiba Asia Medical Group, Shams Container, Impala Restaurant, Shif Jeddah Polyclinic, Safiro and Al-Yasmin Polyclinic.

The trophies and awards were presented by Unni Mukundan, Eastea Managing Director Nawaz Meeran, V.P. Mohammed Ali, Mohammed Alungal, Abdul Rahman of Al-Arabi Sweets, SIFF President Baby Neelambra and other prominent members of the community.

The much-awaited A Division final was delayed due to the arrival of the chief guest, while both the teams were ready for the battle and were raring to go. And when the teams kicked off for the honors, Zabeen took over as their midfielders Rafi and, especially Muneer, ruled the proceedings. Everything went according to their script but for finishing which decided their fate.

Coming to the other end, ACC had done its homework very well. It functioned within its limitations. Since the semifinal hero, defender Jasim, was missing due to injury, it applied a 4-4-2 formation to halt the march of the free-flowing rivals. It worked to a great extent and Shihab, who took the center-back position, played a great game and even cooly converted the final penalty kick to bag the trophy.

Its another defender, small in size but a bundle of energy, Ansar played his heart out. He was always there to block the surprise runs of overlapping Zabeen left defender Aslam. As usual, goalkeeper Salam was in his elements.

At the same time, Zabeen controlled the proceedings very well but kept misfiring. Its defenders did a wonderful job however. Right out Azhar policed Jaffer throughout and intelligent inside defenders Sahal and Hisham kept ACC’s semifinal hat trick man Shahid under guard.

ACC survived the last ten minutes with ten men as their Sameer got marching orders with a second yellow card. However, its defense stood tall in the extra time too, leaving the fate to goalkeeper Abdul Salam who did it in style clinching the Player of the Final also.

Sporting United dominated Soccer Freakz in D Division final. After going one up though a penalty scored by Jasim, Sporting scored twice in the second session through Bamaroof and Imran Abdullah to subdue a fighting Freakz boys. Jasim won the Player of the Final award.

Soccer Freakz, though beaten, played a much-improved game than the scoreboard indicated at last. Its goalkeeper Mohammed Hafiz, who won the best goalkeeper award, was in an outstanding form by making several saves.

Outstanding players awards:

A Division: Goalkeeper — Abdul Salam (ACC B); Defender — Mohammed Aslam (Zabeen FC); Midfielder — Rameez (Real Kerala); Forward — Siraj (Zabeen FC).

B Division: Goalkeeper — Zainul Abid (Jeddah Friends); Defender — Uwais (Newcastle); Midfielder — Jaffer (Jeddah FC); Forward — Yousuf Kankana (Makkah BCC).

C Division: Goalkeeper — Imtiaz Mohammed (Youth India); Defender — Sherief Naduthody (Soccer Freakz); Midfielder — Haaif Kalathingal (Falcon FC); Forward — Afsah (Falcon FC).

D Division: Goalkeeper — Mohammed Hafiz (Soccer Freakz); Defender — Shanid Mukkan (Soccer Freakz); Midfielder — Rohit Rajan (Soccer Freakz); Forward — Imran Abdullah (Sporting United).


March 21, 2018
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