Nawalapitiya crowds thank President Rajapaksa for football tourney

by S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Corr

The staging of the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Football Tournament 2012 for South Asian countries - namely Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the inaugural champions Maldive, Islands has given much hope for the sports loving public in Nawalapitiya. The people of the area seemed thrilled watching the match. The Ministry of Sports and the Football Federation of Sri Lanka must surely have been pleased that the newly developed Jayatilleka Sports Complex at Nawalapitiya was able to raise the spirit of the sports loving public of the area.

The staging of this tournament in Nawalapitiya not only gave the people of the plantation town some food for thought to indulge in Sports activities on the initiative of the Minister of Sports Mahindananda Aluthgamage. So, the Minister Aluthgamage must be happy at the successful completion of the tournament. The tournament had full backing of President Mahinda Rajapaksa whose policy of taking "Sporting to the Village" concept in a bid to bring out the champions.

Tourney well organised

This was a wall organised tournament and every match saw a crowd of over 15,000 witnessing from far and near. The opening day saw Sri Lankan losing to the Maldive Islands due to some inept play. They lost by the biggest margin in the tournament 0-3 and perhaps this big defeat cost them the chance of entering the finals after they had similar record as Pakistan winning one losing one and drawing one. In the other match Pakistan beat Bangladesh 1-0.

On the second day, Sri Lanka kept her chances alive by defeating Bangladesh 1-0 in a match they could have scored more. The second match saw the Maldivians score a close 1-0 win over Pakistan to secure a place in the final.

The third day was a crucial one for Sri Lanka as they had to win their match against Pakistan to book a berth in the Sunday's finals. But this dream was dashed to pieces when the match ended in a scoreless draw. For Pakistan only a draw was required as they could go into the finals by virtue of having conceded lesser number of goals overall in the tournament. Sri Lanka had their chance of scoring but their forwards let them down with some mis-directed kicks.

Then came the shock of the tournament when Bangladesh downed the hitherto to unbeaten Maldive Islands with a shock 1-0 win, underlying the fact that no team is invincible and if you strive hard, you could emerge victors.

The final on Sunday turned out to be a close game with the Pakistanis going hammer and tongs in the first half in which they held the advantage and missed several chances of scoring. The Maldivians had a different strategy and allowed their opponents to use all their plays and when their opponents ran out of steam, went for the kill in the second notching up two goals in a space of two minutes. The Pakistanis could replay only with a solitary goal late in the second half when a missed penalty kick was booted again off a rebound and the ball deflected off a defenders boot into the nets.

Soccer the winners

Though the hosts Sri Lanka did not emerge champions in the tournament, soccer turned out be the final winner and new life had been infused to the 'poor man's game' in this salubrious plantation town, thanks to the efforts of the Minister of Sports Mahindananda Aluthgamage whose untiring efforts had reaped the desired results. This is only the beginning and much more could be achieved in the future and soccer brought back to its pristine glory.

The Nawalapitiya Football League must be given a 'blood transfusion' and soccer tournaments conducted on a big scale as this should be encourage. From the large crowds which thronged to witness this tournament, it is evident that soccer is extremely popular and given the encouragement and guidance more will take to this game