Despite playing on their home ground, the footballers from Police were unable to get into their stride against an Army side which overwhelmed them with two early goals and stifling defence, to walk away with a 2-0 victory in their Dialog Champions League encounter.
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| A tussle for possession between two rival players (Pic Susantha Liyanawatte) |
Police were late out of the blocks and paid the price for wasting several clear-cut chances against an Army side which did not exactly dominate proceedings at Police Park.
The opening goal from Nahas Mohamed came in only the 10th minute of the match, during a period of enterprising play where Army enjoyed the lion’s share of possession. Mohamed broke into the box and, finding himself poorly marked, calmly guided an accurate long ball past Police’s helpless goalkeeper, Prasad Alwis.
The early strike immediately put the policeman on the defensive and Army’s players did not fail to capitalize, with Mohamed Isadeen scoring within a minute of the first goal.
Once again the marking within the box was extremely poor and Isadeen was left with plenty of time to take aim and whip a lightning strike into the bottom corner of Alwis’ goal.
During the second half, Police seemed to show more composure in their play, and they finally strung together enough passes to bring Army’s goalkeeper, Kumara Sirisena into the game. However, during the 51st minute Police’s defence once again went to shambles and they conceded a silly penalty. Mohamed, the scorer of the first goal, stepped up to be a hero once again. Alwis however, had had enough of seeing the ball sailing into the back of his net and smartly guessed right with his dive to push the ball clear of goal.
The save though was to prove the high point of Police’s performance, and they could do little to stop Army from snuffing out the cheers of the home spectators and sending them home disappointed.
Referee: T. Kumara |
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