A draw, but Colombo enters finals
Colombo FC were held to a no-decision by Java Lane SC in the fifth match of the round robin league of the City League President Trophy soccer tournament played at the City League Sports Complex yesterday.
Organised by the City Football League the top four seeded teams of the league, namely Colombo FC, Renown FC, Java Lane FC and Saunders SC took part took part in the tournament.
Today’s game — the fifth match of the league between Saunders vs. Renown SC, will be played at the same venue. In spite of one more match to be played, FA Cup and Dialog Champions League winners Colombo FC have qualified for the finals with an unbeaten record.
On their road to the finals Colombo FC beat Renown 3-0, Saunders 2-0 and drew yesterday’s match vs. Java Lane 0-0. With this draw Java Lane were ousted from the running while Saunders to enter the finals. They will have to defeat Renown with a goal margin of over three. A Renown SC win will make no change in the running for a berth in the finals.
Java Lane would have pulled off this match if not for the missing three opportunities. In the 40th minute of the first half the referee controversially disallowed a goal scored by Java Lane as a Java Lane player collected the ball from outside the playing area to score.
The game didn’t look clean as several yellow cards were shown for Colombo FC. Still, this was a good game to watch as both sides making attacking moves to score from the start but were prevented by the rock solid defences of both back divisions.
The finals is scheduled to be played on April 30 at the City League Sports Complex commencing at 4. p.m. The winners will walk away with a handsome cash prize of Rs. 150,000 while the runner-up will be rewarded with Rs. 100,000.