ZAHIRA CROWNED schools football champs again

Zahira College, Colombo often referred as the Kings of Schools’ Football maintained their supremacy by clinching the All Island Division 1 Interschool Football Tournament organized by the Sri Lanka Schools’ Football Association beating St. Mary’s College, Negombo by 2 goals to nil in a thrilling final match played at the Zahira College Ground last Friday.

Playing amidst a large crowd, Zahira dominated most parts of the first half by aggressively attacking the opponents goal many times but could not score. St. Mary’s too played well and foiled the opponent’s threats of scoring goals through their solid defence. The tussle was so intense that Zahira was able to score their first goal only at the last minute of the first half through their attacking mid fielder, Mohamed Humaid, who also represented the Sri Lanka under 23 in this year’s AFC under 23 qualifiers.

At lemons the score stood as 1 - 0 in favour of Zahira.

Playing with better cohesion in the second half, St. Mary’s attacked Zahira’s goal many times but could not pass the line.Zahira too exerted the pressure on the opponent’s half and scored their second goal of the match at the 17th minute through Striker M. Shafeer adding much thrill to their home ground support and sealed a 2 - 0 victory. Zahira has been performing well in the schools football arena in 2014 by clinching many major championships. They include the Invitation Sevens tournament organized by Elizabeth Moir School, “Chox” Inter School All Island Championship organized by the Football Federation of SL, Zahira Invitation 7’s Tournament organized by the Past Prefects’ Association of Zahira College, Futsal Tournament organized by St. Joseph’s College, Maradana and Colombo Zonal Championship organized by the Ministry of Education.

The match for the 3rd place was played between Nalanda College, Colombo and St. Sebastian’s College, Katuneriya at the same venue and was won by the latter 2 goals to nil.