CANSAULIM TOP INDIAN EXPAT LEAGUE DIVAR SLIP, ST MARYS SECOND
Cansaulim Football Club led by Mafario Antao climbed to the top of the standings in the First Indian Expat Football League played at the Dubai Club for Special Sports. The sixteen team League organized by Gulf International Promotions for Indian Expatriates resident in the UAE has reached the half way mark with some interesting results. The title sponsors for the League are Gulf Eternit Industries and co-sponsors are Future Pipe Industries, Pehla, Al Awael, Firstnet, Lipton, Nike, Sun & Sand Sports, Masafi, Al Rawabi and Tiffany. Cansaulim Football Club defeated Dragon All Starz 2-0 in their first game of the night. Top striker Brian Almeida opened the scoring for the Cansaulim team in the tenth minute in a close game. Dragon All Starz put up a strong resistance with Captain Melvin Chandy, Nestor Vaz and Sharif Abdul Azeez playing a good game. Cansaulim did their best to counter the All Starz team and were rewarded when Benit D'Souza latched on to a through ball by Remedious Furtado to put the game beyond the reach of the All Starz who fought till the end. In their second game of the night Cansaulim were held to a goalless draw by a determined Dubai Republicans who put up a good show. Dubai Republicans led by Peter Cross were sturdy in defence with keeper Gordon in good form. Sunny Gabriel and Dalton Fernandes were the other players who ensured the Cansaulim players were kept at bay. Cansaulim are on 21 points having played 19 games and lead the table at the halfway stage. St Anthony captained by Sandy Fernandes scored their first win of the league defeating fourteenth placed Desert Cubs by two goals to nil. Clive Rodrigues who was in good form opened the scoring for the St Anthony team scoring off a pass from Darryl Rasquinha in the ninth minute. Desert Cubs exerted some pressure on their opponents with Roger Kottor and Benson Achankunju making forays into the St Anthony area but Luis D'Silva and Sydney Lemos kept them at bay. Edel Fernandes scored from a corner kick in the dying minutes to give St Anthony full points and lift them into twelfth position. St Marys Boys climbed into second position in the league holding a strong Divar to a goalless draw. The experienced Divar lads had majority of the exchanges but could not convert their superiority into goals. Keeper Densil was in good form and defenders Keegan D'Costa and Arthur Fernandes kept the Divar forwards at bay. Orlando Viegas, Colin D'Cruz and Ashok Saterdkar tried their best but failed in front of goal. Divar slipped to fifth position having started the game in second place. Almoe FC had to pull out all stops to defeat a determined Zuari FC by two goals to nil. Zuari put up a strong resistance but were hampered by the absence of two regular players. Savio Cardozo, Joaquim Figuerado and Avlon Dalgado played their hearts out but could not score. On the other hand Almoe with some neat crisp passing managed to penetrate the Zuari defence and opened the scoring through Sachin Shivram who scored in the fifteenth minute. The teams played much better football in the second half and Zuari were unlucky not to score when Lynton D'Souza missed narrowly. Almoe were lucky to score the second goal when Franklin Ferns latched on to a defensive lapse and slotted the ball past the Zuari keeper to round off the match 2-0. Almoe climbed a notch to fourth position while Zuari are in thirteenth place. St Marys Boys playing their second game of the night were lucky to scrape a narrow 1-0 win over rejuvenated Desert Cubs. St Marys had to thank Roy Das for their victory. The fleet footed Roy stole the ball from a Cubs defender and placed the ball beyond the reach of the Cubs keeper to score the only goal of the match. The St Marys goal had two narrow escapes when Roger Kattor and Justin Matthews came close to scoring with the keeper well beaten. It was not however to be their day and St Marys walked off with the three points. A strong Varca FC led by Levin Fernandes played an exciting draw with Copy Corner Sporting. Several missed opportunities by both teams was the highlight of the match. Copy Corner were the first to take the initiative with Manoj A and Rasheed K making several forays into the Varca Area. The Varca defence ably marshaled by Cornelius Correa held the Copy Corner lads at bay. The teams changed ends without any score on the board. The second half was played at a fast pace with Copy Corners captain Rasheed getting over excited and was shown the red card by referee Manuel for rough play. The game was kept well under control by referee Manuel . Basheer and Subair came close to scoring for the Copy Corner team but missed guilt edged chances. Shane Thomas and Sean Fernandes played their hearts out for the Varca team but could not translate their control into goals and had to split the points . Copy Corner slipped to seventh position while Varca slipped to ninth place in the sixteen team league. Emirates Flight Catering slipped four places to eighth position after a shock 1-2 defeat at the hands of Dubai Republicans who climbed six places to third in the standings. The game began on a fast pace with both teams going all out for goal. Jansen Machado latched on to a good ball by Sunny Gabriel to score from the left and open the scoring for the Republican lads. Shocked by the goal the Catering lads went all out and were rewarded when hardworking Sebyton Colaco equalized with a gem of a goal. The teams changed ends with the score tied one all. On resumption both teams went in search of the winner and Dalton Fernandes found the net in the seventeenth minute to put the Dubai republicans in the lead. This goal proved to be the match winner as both teams defence withstood the pressure and no further goals were scored. St Anthony players had a good day out when they held a strong Copy Corner team to a one all draw in a strong encounter. The hard playing Copy Corner team exerted a lot of pressure on the St Anthony team but sheer determination and team work helped the St Anthony team walk away with a point. Copy Corner took the upper hand in the first minute and raided the St Anthony Goal but their keeper withstood the pressure. The second half was a seesaw battle with both teams trying to open the scoring. Copy Corner were rewarded in the fifteenth minute when Basheer K scored from close range after being put through by Rasheed. Sheer persistence paid off for St Anthony when fleet footed Sydney Lemos latched on to a pass from Luis D'Silva and dribbled past two players before slotting the ball into the net to the joy of their supporters. There was no further scoring and the honours were shared. In the last game of the night Phoenix Loutolim stayed in tenth position inspite of a hard fought 2-1 victory over Dragon All Starz. Simon Fernandes opened the scoring for the Loutolim team led by Marques. Sunil Chandran scored a good goal to level the scores just before half time. Loutolims Renato Fernandes took advantage of a defensive lapse to put the ball into the All Starz net to secure all three points for his team. _____________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. Goanet mailing list ([email protected])
