Exciting fair on the card as top contenders battle it out
Top contenders Army, Navy, Colombo FC and Blue Star will battle it out with full force with intentions of reaching the final destination, when the Cargills Food City FA Cup reaches its semi-finals today. The first semi-final will be played between Army and Colombo FC at 4.00pm followed by the second decider between Navy and Blue Star at 7.00pm. Both games will be played at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo.
The semi-final line up, similar to what it looked like last season, could produce the two best ever football encounters seen in the recent times, with the Soldiers looking forward to defend their title. But last year’s finalist and the two losing semi-finalists will not let title holders Army SC have it easy. After a number of hard fought games the four teams have made it to the semis, but the speculation is if the two fresh-footed sides, Colombo FC and Navy, could produce an unexpected turnaround, unlike last year.
Title holders Army beat Upcountry Lions 2-0 in the quarter-final with their striker, the ever dependable Mohamed Izzadeen netting both goals. Despite the Soldiers enjoying the eventual win Upcountry Lions did not have the star studded Army unit an easy game. The game was on a clean sheet until the 40th minute before Izzadeen broke the line and found the net for put Army on top 1-0 at halftime. After the resumption, again the Soldiers were given a torrid time by the Lions before Izzadeen struck his second in the 80th minute.
Last year’s finalist Blue Star owe much to their goalkeeper Manjula Fernando, who kept his nerve intact to help his team record 3-0 on penalties against Matara City FC in another quarter-final game. Fernando kept up to expectation of thousands soccer crazy fans from Kalutara to save two penalties out of the three, as the game ended scoreless after an intense battle. In the first 15 minutes the game was really going well and both teams settled for defence till the end of half time. In the first half Mohamed Farzeen hit the bar off a thunder from outside the penalty area and the Ghanaian midfielder of Matara City, also messed up a freekick, hitting it the cross bar.
Known as the most successful football teams to come out in the recent times, Colombo FC outplayed the glamour boys of Sri Lankan soccer, Saunders by 4-2 in another well contested quarter-final encounter. Colombo FC, the runner-up of this year’s Champions League, were held 1-1 by Saunders at halftime. Colombo FC opened scoring through Dimitri at fifth minute and Saunders equalised three minutes later through K. de Silva. After the turnaround K.A.D. Madushanka scored in the 73rd minute for Colombo FC followed another J.F. Morais, three minutes later. Seven minutes later Dimitri struck again to put Colombo FC ahead by 4-1 before Saunders netted a last minute goal to make it 4-2.
New Kids on the Block Solid SC, the Champions League winner, could not lived up to their dreams of going in for a second title, when Navy SC dashed all their hopes in another quarter-final battle, which ended at 3-2 in favour of the Sailors. This was the most exciting clash of the four quarter-finals as both teams were locked at 1-all at halftime with T.J. Wijesinghe striking for Solid and Christen Fernando booting for Navy. In the second half A.P. Lakshita scored for Navy in 55th minute to take the lead but it lived just for five minutes. A.G. Stoja equalised for Solid to make it 2-2. Just when the battle got more intense, with the game reaching the close A.N. Roshan struck the third and vital goal for Navy to seal the victory and put them through to semi-finals.
Last year Army beat Blue Star 2-0 to clinch the Cargills Food City FA Cup Football Championship 2013 with a record 20,000 plus fans witnessing the grand final. The Cargills Food City FA Cup 2014 was played islandwide with over 628 clubs participating in an exciting knockout format competition.