Airmen beat Saunders 2-1 rise to top spot
By Leslie FERNANDO
Sri Lanka Air Force came back to form and registered an important
victory against Saunders SC 2-1 in a Group `A' match of the Dialog
Champions League soccer tournament conducted by the Football Federation
of Sri Lanka played at the City Football League grounds yesterday. For
Air Force it is a fine comeback after the defeat against Renown in the
earlier match. With this close win Air Force take the top spot with a
points from four matches.
The winners showed their supremacy with better technical style to
overpower the strong Saunders SC outfit.
After a good move by the midfielders Saunders SC surged ahead in the
4th minute through their ace player Dilan Kaushalya de Silva who
dribbled past two defenders and doged the advancing goalkeeper to drive
the ball into net from a very acute angle.
Airmen settled down to play better and broke the Saunders SC defence
with a good combined effort. In the 20th minute Kalum Perera after
receiving a regular inward pass and hit the net to make 1-all. After the
equaliser the tempo of the game increased and four players were booked
(yellow card) for rough and foul play.
At half time the score stood at 1-all Air Force had number of scoring
opportunities after the break and their strikers were not prominent.
In a ding dong battle for the winning goal both sides played an
attacking style of football. But to the surprise of everyone Air Force
received a `gift' goal in the 62nd minute. Jayasundera's free kick
landed into the goal area and in a mix up the ball went straight into
the hands of the goal keeper Asanga Viraj who completely failed to
gather the ball correctly.
Saunders SC custodian should take the full blame for letting go the
all important goal which was a very costly one to his team.
Referee: Priyanka Pieris
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