Royal Institute meet British Int'l in final

By Bernard PERERA

It was a Ding Dong battle and the game was at its best when the Dialog International schools Semi finals played on Friday evening. There were Thousands of fans cheering their schools to qualify for the grand final to be played on Tuesday 12th October at the CR & FC Grounds, Longdon Place, Colombo 7. The tournament is organized by the Royal Institute International Schools in Association with Institute of Public Relational and Football Federation of Sri Lanka. Dialog Axiata is the sponsor of the tournament.

At the first semi-finals Gateway - Colombo who was the table leader in the league rounds went down in fighting to British International 1-0. It was BIC stickers Sangmin Bak who scored at the second half to seal the BIC victory. In the last 15 minutes both team played attacking football but the forwards lacked the direction to score for their team.

In the second semi-finals Royal Institute had a tough resistance from the Elizabeth Moir where the ball possession was shared with 50:50 and the RI Goalkeeper Sanker Bandara saved 2 certain goals which paved way for their victory. It was at the 20th minute referee Idunil Ediriwickramasuriya who awarded a spot kick with over 25 yards outside the box when the Elezabeth Moir defense handled the ball. Adam Nuhadh placed it beautifully to the left corner top of the goal to make it 1 - nil for Royal Institute. It was truly a "David Beckem' type spot kick and the thousands of RI fans celebrated the goal in style. Gateway, School, Kandy will play in third place play off at 2.0 pm while the final between Royal Institute and British International School play the final at 3.30 pm at CR & FC ground on October 12.