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Maris Stella-Zahira, De Mazenod-St. Peter's:
Schools under-19 football semi-finals this week
By Ranjan Anandappa
Heavy weights in the Sri Lanka Schools Football arena Maris Stella
College, Negombo and Zahira College Colombo play in the first semi-final
while De Mazenod College, Kandana and St. Peter's College Bambalapitiya
will confront each other in the second semi-finals of the Kotmale Chox
Under 19 Football Championship final stage at the Sugathadasa Stadium on
Monday (Tomorrow), The second semi final between De Mazenod and new
comers St. Peter's will take place on August 15 also at the Sugathadasa
Stadium.
The tournament is conducted by the Football Federation of Sri Lanka
and sponsored by Kotmale Chox.
Twenty teams including four International schools took part at the
league and knock-out stages prior to the semi finals. Maris Stella,
Negombo, Zahira Colombo and De Mazenod, Kandana have always been in the
forefront of schools soccer, but the participation of St. Peter's,
Bambalapitiya, more of cricket and rugby fame entering the tournament
and finding a place in the semi final has been a remarkable effort.
While meeting Zahira in the first semi-final, Maris Stella looks the
favourites with their unblemished record throughout the tournament.
The Maristonians biggest win at the league stage was beating St.
Benedict's 3-1 at Kotahena. The Negombo school also defeated S. Thomas'
Mount Lavinia 5-0, Royal 4-0, St. Mary's, Negombo 6-2, and Royal
Institute 10-0 in the league. The Colombo Zahirians had a bitter
experience in the first game, losing to Hameed-Al-Hussainia 2-4 after
drawing first blood in the third minute of the game. But, Zahira came
back fighting to get the better of Lumbini 5-0, Hindu College 2-0, and a
'walk-over' from the British International School and in the quarter
finals they went on to beat Joseph Vaz ,Wennappuwa 1-0 to reach the
semi- final.
Maris Stella's forte has been their strong set of forwards
spearheaded by centre-forward Dulaj Peiris who has scored 11 goals, the
highest number of goals in the tournament.
They also have right-extreme Ashan Jeewantha who has just returned
from the Airtel Manchester United training camp and left-extreme Samitha
Sulakshana, to add more vigour to the forwards. So it should finally
boil down to a tussle between the defence of Zahira and the power of
Maris Stella forwards.
Zahira has two Sri Lanka school representatives, M. Usman and M.
Humaid. They heavily depend on the efforts of their goal-keeper Usman
who has brought off some spectacular saves on their path to victory.
The second semi-final between De Mazenod College, Kandana and St.
Peter's College Bambalapitiya at the Sugathadasa Stadium. The
Mazenodians are fancied, but the Peterites are capable of an upset.
Both matches should be highly competitive and the spectators are
assured of witnessing quality football.
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