Narrow wins for giants

October 31, 2009

Holders Abahani and title contenders Mohammedan both won against Feni Soccer Club and Shuktara Jubo Sangsad of Narayanganj respectively with identical 1-0 margins in their first away matches of the Bangladesh League yesterday.

Ghanaian striker Sheriff Deen Mohammad converted an 89-minute penalty against host Feni Soccer to give Abahani second successive victory at the Feni Stadium.

The victory also means the Sky Blues extended their unbeaten run to 13 matches in the professional football league, 11 of which came last season.

National star striker Zahid Hasan Emily struck in the first half against Shuktara Jubo Sangsad to get Mohammedan a second win in as many matches at the Osmani Stadium in Narayanganj.

In both venues Narayangaj and Feni, it had been huge enthusiasm among the local football fans, who turned up at the roofs of different buildings adjacent to the stadiums to watch the matches of both Dhaka giants as the partly galleries were packed to inspire their local sides.

The Dhanmondi-based outfit, Abahani, went to take on hosts Soccer Club on the back of a 3-1 win against Beanibazar SC in their league opener, but the visitors without ace striker Awudu Ibrahim struggled a bit to find their feet against a side, who went down 3-0 to Mohammedan last week.

Feni outfit’s goalkeeper Golam Mostafa Tuhan denied the Sky Blues with a string of saves and parried their mighty opponents till the penultimate minute of the game before Abahani broke the hosts’ resistance through a penalty shot.

Sheriff converted the 12-yard shot one minute from time to raise his tally to three after referee Hannan Miron awarded the penalty shot following the handle of the ball by Feni midfielder Asif Yousuf inside the danger zone.

“The referee could avoid the penalty shot as it happened unintentionally while attempting to clear the ball,” said Feni coach Zahidur Rahman Milon, who, however, said that his side played better football compared to the first match against Mohammedan.

Abahani manager Satyajit Das Rupu said that Abahani should have won the game by at least a 4-0 margin, but Sheriff, Zahid Parvez Chowdhury and Abul Hossain, playing his season’s first match, squandered easy chances to keep Abahani waiting till the last moment.

The former national player also said that Abahani controlled the game from the beginning and it was a bit hard to control the ball on the pitch, which was prepared in three days.

Over in Narayanganj, Federation Cup champions Mohammedan dominated the first half before the visitors spent some worried time in the second half against the Narayanganj outfit, who were defeated 2-0 by Sheikh Russel KC in their first appearance in the league.

Emily, however, made no mistake to put the Black and Whites ahead in the 24th minute when he was presented a Nassir cross from right and the national striker kept his cool inside the box to send the ball home over onrushing goalkeeper Al Amin, who denied a curling shot outside the box taken by winger Zahid Hossain in the starting moments.

With four minutes left of the first half, Emily was denied by the woodwork when he headed a right-side lob from Zahid.

Shuktara seemed more energetic with their better movements after the break and al but controlled the midfield to yield two scoring opportunities inside three minutes, but Mohammedan second-choice goalkeeper MN Shakil foiled one of those.

Shakil brilliantly gripped a Khokon header following a scramble in front of goal mouth in the 67th minute while three minutes later Tapu hammered a powerful drive outside the box that narrowly went over the Mohammedan crosspiece much to relief of the visitors.

Mohammedan, however, could have got another goal in the dying moments, but the visitors were not lucky enough as the ball seemingly crossed the goalline with a deflection from Emily following a Mamunul Islam corner, but it was not viewed by the assistant referee and Emily was deprived of his season’s 10th goal.

Narrow wins for giants

Comments