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13th September 2017, Mumbai: After displaying a great brand of football in the first stage of the Indian Women’s League (IWL) Preliminary Round, both, Football Leaders Academy and Rush Soccer carried their fine form to secure yet another victory at Cooperage Stadium on Wednesday evening.
Football Leaders Academy (FLA) vs Kenkre FC
In the first clash of Matchday 12, Football Leaders Academy (FLA) faced Kenkre FC in hope to retain their place at the top of the table as Bodyline SC had leapfrogged them after clinching a 4-0 victory on the previous day. Whereas, Kenkre FC headed towards the match to secure their second victory of the campaign.
FLA started off brightly and dictated the match proceedings right from their defense. Laura Estebeiro’s ball distribution from the back caused Kenkre FC several problems as she precisely found space to create a number of opportunities for FLA.
The deadlock was broken midway into the first-half when Archana Thakur superbly placed her effort into the back of the net to score her first goal of the campaign. Although she went on to miss several opportunities to double FLA’s lead, the forward finally scored her second goal just before the half-time with a sublime goal.
The second-half proved nothing but a reminiscent of the first forty-minutes. Football Leaders Academy clearly dominated the match as they left no stones unturned to snatch all three points and restore their position at the top of the table.
Striker Shimona Saldhana who had bagged a hat-trick in the first match of the campaign against Kenkre FC once again got on the scoresheet to score her fourth goal of the campaign. The fourth and final goal was netted by Amrita Poojary in the dying minutes of the match.
Rush Soccer vs PIFA Sports
The second clash of the day saw Rush Soccer and PIFA Sports locking horns with each other in an anticipating clash at Cooperage. Although PIFA Sports were equally better for the majority of the match, the clinical strikeforce of Rush Soccer once again turned decisive as a splendid second-half display saw them winning the match 4-0.
PIFA displayed brilliant attacking football in the first-half as Striker Jyoti running the show. The only missing jigsaw in the puzzle for PIFA was a ‘clinical strike’. The girls in red came close to open the scoring on numerous occasions but couldn’t manage to put the ball in the back of the net.
Meanwhile, on the other end, Rush’s Jyoti Kumar had other ideas when midway into the first-half she fired a volley against the run of play to break the deadlock to give Rush Soccer a crucial lead.
Deepika Masurkar and Jyoti turned out to be a potent threat for Rush’s defense but once again the killer instinct in front of the goal was missing from PIFA. Their counterpart swiftly took advantage of PIFA’s missing opportunities and fired in three more goals in the second half to wrap up the match.
Deepika Singh scored two quick-fire goals before star striker Nishu Singh completed the victory with a wonderful goal to put the final nail in the coffin.
