Semifinals – HAH!

UPDATED: The Khaleej Times article on the semifinals…

Semifinals:

Modern: 1
Charan – 2′

NIMS, Sharjah: 0

We won, again. The match summary is simple. From the kick-off, within a couple of minutes, we raced into the lead. I received the ball on the right flank, went past a couple of defenders, and put in a cross. The ball got slightly deflected by one of the defenders, but it somehow reached Charan. The deflection obviously put him off a little, but he got his shin to the ball. The ball went towards the far post, struck it, and went in. It took time for us to actually realize that we scored, it was as if we were waiting for some kind of confirmation. I bet everyone asked themselves – ‘did that actually go in?’. It did. One-nil to the good.

After that, however, we became Italy-like. We switched to defence mode, and our opponents switched to turbo attack mode. They struck the bar twice, and had an open goal to score into, but didn’t convert any of their chances. Thank god. Luck was on our side, and I hope it stays with us for the finals too. And beyond the luck, our defence was pretty strong too. Our small Neil was simply brilliant. His pace, strength and determination underlines the fact that he is the best defender in our team. Hats off to him for a great display, not only today, but throughout the tournament. Attack-wise we had no real chances after our goal. The whole team was defending, and I guess that’s a game of its own, a game lateral to the fast-flowing attacking that everyone likes to see. Anyway, it’s the result that matters.

Our final is against Indian High School, Dubai. Now Indian High is one team that have been lucky throughout. They qualified from their group as the second place team without scoring any goals. 0 goals. How did they go through? They got a walk over and got 2 more points from 2 goalless draws. Their luck did not stop there. In the quarters, they faced arguably the best team of the tournament, Our Own, Al Warqaa. They beat them on penalties after playing out a 2-2 draw. It doesn’t stop there either. In the semis, they faced Our Own Indian, Dubai. Indian High won on penalties, again. They had drawn 1-1 in normal time, and guess how they got their goal? The OOIS goalkeeper had the ball in his hand next to his goal. An IHS player nudged him, and the keeper dropped the ball into the goal. The referee did not see it. The goal stood. Unfair? Or plain lucky? Unbelievable, definitely.

So luck also seems to like IHS, but I guess it is less hypocritical towards them. To add to their luck, we have some sort of voodoo against them. In the past, we have always lost to them. 5-0 – when I was in 8th, 3-2 – when I was in 10th, 7-1 – when I was in 11th. This year, football wise, they are definitely not as good as they were in the past, and we are hungry for revenge. We want to kick their ass. That’s it.

P.S. For those who don’t know, the whole of 11th and 12th grade boys will get to see the finals on Sunday!